There have been many takes on the Charles Dickens‘ classic A Christmas Carol. Besides the many traditional remakes there have been cartoon versions, Americanized modern day tales, a comedy and even a version where the Scrooge character was female. So just when you were thinking that there is no way that this story could be made fresh and exciting, along comes the film Scrooge & Marley to put a new spin on things.

Scrooge & Marley is a holiday movie with something for everyone, comedy, drama…showtunes??? The story is faithful to the Dickens classic, but with a gay-friendly twist. Ebenezer “Ben” Scrooge (David Pevsner) is a mean, miserly nightclub owner who just happens to hate Christmas. He treats everyone like crap, has no friends and barely any family with the exception of a niece Freda (Rusty Schwimmer) who cannot stand him but reluctantly extends him an invitation to her Christmas gala at the request of her partner who wants to reunite them as a family. Naturally Mr. Scrooge turns it down in favor of the traditional anti-holiday repast of Chinese takeout and a night alone.

Well, Chinese food not only makes you hungry an hour later but in Scrooge’s case it also brings on a few spirited visitors, including a visit from his old partner Jacob Marley (former SNL regular Tim Kazurinsky) who has come to warn him of the unpleasant fate that awaits him if he doesn’t change his ways. A visit from the ghost of Christmas Past (Ronnie Kroell) brings back sad memories, including Scrooge being kicked out of his home by a homophobic father and the loss of a great friend and mentor Fezziwig (Bruce Vilanch) , and his one true love due to increasing greed. Visits from the ghosts of Present (Megan Kavanagh) and Future (JoJo Baby) are fairly predictable but done with sparkle and sass. Lessons are learned and the usual happy ending commences, and as Tiny Tim says “God Bless us one and all”.

Narrated by Judith Light (yes, Angela from Who’s The Boss) and set in our very own town of Chicago, Scrooge & Marley is a must-see for the holiday season and Count and I give it **TWO FANGS UP**

For more information and to purchase the film on DVD and Blu-Ray visit ScroogeandMarleymovie.com.

The post Review: Scrooge & Marley first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

The world contains quite a few people who seem to always be playing to an invisible camera. But Bruce Vilanch is one of those truly rare people who is always cracking jokes off the top of his head that are actually funny.
Vilanch is known for his work both behind and in front of the camera. The two-time Emmy winner has written material for many of America’s top comedians, but is probably best known to the public for his time as a regular on Hollywood Squares. Vilanch has been head writer for the Academy Awards since 2000. In 1999, he was the subject of a feature-length documentary, Get Bruce!, about his life as Hollywood’s most sought-after humor writer.

It’s easy to see why Vilanch is such a valuable commodity in Hollywood. In person, he’s endearingly clever in a down-to-earth way, loves playfully entertaining everyone around him, and seems unable to stop saying things that are genuinely hilarious.

Vilanch was in Chicago for the shooting of the new film Scrooge & Marley, a contemporary retelling of the classic Dicken’s tale, A Christmas Carol, “with a gay twist,” that will premiere during this year’s holiday season. In a casting stroke of genius, Vilanch plays the comic/tragic character Fezziwig in the film.

Though he already had on his Fezziwig wig for our interview, the makeup department had not yet glued on his Fezzi-beard. He stroked the strawberry blonde locks of his wig lovingly, and told me, “My old hair—it’s come back to visit. It’s been living in a condo in Boca Raton, and now it’s decided to come out of retirement.” In fact, his real hair today, with its strawberry blonde color and shoulder-length Prince Valiant styling, looked rather similar to his Fezzi-wig—just a bit less bushy.

Not done hamming it up, Vilanch began to croon to his wig: “‘Hello my old friend … ‘ I feel like Sweeney Todd,” he quipped. “‘This is my burden … .’ Soon there will be a beard to complete the picture. I will look like a nightmare version of myself from the Seventies. I can’t wait!”

In Dickens’ original Christmas Carol, Fezziwig is young Scrooge and Marley’s boss. He’s a generous, ethical businessman who treats his employees like family, cares about their welfare, and throws lively holiday parties for all. Sadly, he is forced to sell his business to avaricious corporate interests who care nothing about worker morale. Scrooge and Marley, grown more callous over time, side with the heartless new owners.

“I play Fezziwig, who you’ll remember from Dickens,” Vilanch said. “But this is a different kind of Fezziwig. He’s a guy who owns a disco in the Seventies and he’s Auntie Mame—Rosalind Russell and Auntie Mame.” Vilanch threw back his head, causing his wig to flounce. “He’s all, ‘Oh how droll, how vivid!’ He’s a pretty fabulous character, and he brings young Scrooge and Marley in [to his business] and of course they do him dirt—you know the story. And then we see his downfall. But then there’s a resurrection. It’s very biblical.”

Though Scrooge & Marley is a modern, gay-themed retelling of A Christmas Carol, Vilanch’s character follows the traditional Dickensian arc. “He’s a jolly old soul who gets caught up in his vices and gets caught up in their chicanery. And eventually he’s something they [the spirits] show Scrooge, to show what a bad guy Scrooge has been through the years. So Fezziwig’s kind of a poster child for excess. But at the same time, he’s brought down by the hand of somebody who is genuinely sinister. And he’s not. And I like him.”

Dickens’ Fezziwig symbolized the end of an era he knew well, the Industrial Revolution. Dickens’ saw it as a time when small businessmen and local industries like Fezziwig’s were disappearing, swept away by more ruthlessly profiteering business practices and cutthroat corporations. The Fezziwig in Scrooge & Marley also symbolizes the end of an era: the pre-AIDS gay culture.

“Fezziwig is the end of that party that was going on in the gay community in the Seventies, that was ended by the AIDS epidemic,” said Vilanch. “Suddenly everything got very serious and everything that we were told would happen because of what we were doing suddenly happened—and not because of what we were doing. It was totally coincidental. It was the end of some kind of a party that had been going on since I think Stonewall. There was a great deal of joy about liberation and getting a movement going and all that, and that came crashing down when people began dying. And ironically enough, that movement, because of the epidemic, became a real genuine political movement, which is as forceful today as it can be.”

Vilanch was living in Chicago in 1970, working at the Chicago Tribune, when he met Bette Midler. Midler hired him to write jokes for her, marking the start of a successful collaboration that has lasted through the years. After moving to L.A., Vilanch began writing material for other famous comics as well, including Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, and Lily Tomlin, and for television shows like ABC’s original Donny and Marie Show and The Brady Bunch. Vilanch heard about the Scrooge & Marley project from his friend, the film’s co-director and co-writer, Richard Knight.

“I had done his radio show when I was in Chicago doing Hairspray, and we’ve been friendly ever since. And he talked about making this strange gay take on A Christmas Carol. When you consider Christmas Carol’s been done every other way—I mean, I’m waiting for the al-Qaeda version, that’s all that has been missed—so I thought, how could I not be a part of it? It’s so original, so unusual.”

Vilanch also considered a gay version of A Christmas Carol in it’s wider cultural context. “I think that the reason to do a gay version of anything is to show that we’re all basically the same under the skin. That the humanity is the same. We just have wildly different cultural perspectives and ways of expressing ourselves. But it’s the humanity of it all that’s important,” he observed.

“And gay community, and gay culture, for want of a better word, is just so much fun. It’s so festive and everything-is-in-quotes and over-the-top exaggerated, because it’s a culture that had to live under the thumb of a straight culture for years, so its take on things comes from being oppressed. And that’s always funny,” said Vilanch. “I mean, I’m Jewish, too, and we have that in common: we were oppressed for five thousand years and that’s why so many funny people are Jews. When you’re at the bottom, you kind of have to look up and laugh, because you don’t see the sun a lot.” Vilanch paused, then added warmly, “And eventually, you do.”

The post Star Of New “Scrooge And Marley,” Bruce Vilanch, Gives Great Interview first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

CHICAGO — Hollywood legend Bruce Vilanch and acclaimed actor David Moretti have joined the cast of a feature film being shot in Chicago this May.

Scrooge & Marley is a modern-day variation on Charles Dickens‘ classic story of the holidays, A Christmas Carol. Recounted from a gay sensibility, with heart, comedy and music, the magic of Dickens’ timeless tale of a man’s redemption at the holidays—thanks to the help of three ghostly spirits—comes alive from a fresh perspective that will appeal to audiences of every persuasion.

Two-time Emmy winner Vilanch is a writer, songwriter and actor, well known for his four-year role on Hollywood Squares and as a head writer for the Oscars.

Moretti is best known as Thom Etherton, the intrepid reporter on here! TV’s acclaimed vampire series, The Lair. Moretti led the series for three seasons between 2007 and 2010. His character also crossed over into the network’s sister show, Dante’s Cove.

“I am beyond excited to be a part of Scrooge & Marley,” Moretti said. “Christmas movies hold a very special place in my heart as I have a handful of favorites I’ve watched every single Christmas since I was a little boy. My hope is that Scrooge & Marley becomes that for the gay community. It’s a sweet, classic story of redemption … with a little glitter.”

Moretti and Vilanch join several other actors already cast in the film, including: Megan Cavanagh ( A League of Their Own, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Exes and Ohs ) ; Rusty Schwimmer ( North Country, Perfect Storm, A Little Princess, Drop Dead Diva, Bones, Louie ) ; Ronnie Kroell ( Bravo’s Make Me a Super Model, Eating Out-Drama Camp and Into the Lion’s Den ) ; and Becca Kaufman, a renowned Chicago-area vocalist.

Final casting of the film’s major roles will be complete by April 1.

Scrooge & Marley is based on an original script by Ellen Stoneking, Richard Knight, Jr. and the late Tim Imse. It will be directed by Knight and Peter Neville.

Executive producers of the film are Tracy Baim ( Hannah Free ) and David Strzepek ( Foodgasm ) , who are joined by several co-producers ( Knight, Neville, Stoneking, Kroell and Etta Worthington ) and experienced crew. Line producer is Thavary Krouch.

The film is being financed by investors and an IndieGoGo campaign under the name Scrooge & Marley film has also been launched. They hope to raise $15,000 by April 4, to add to the investor funding. See www.indiegogo.com/Scrooge-Marley-film .

Legal counsel for the production is Joseph L. Voss from Clark Hill PLC.

www.scroogeandmarleymovie.com .

On Facebook see www.facebook.com/ScroogeAndMarley .

The post Bruce Vilanch To Star In Richard Knight, Jrs. “Scrooge And Marley” first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

For self-professed “movie addict” and long-time Chicago-based film critic Richard Knight, Jr., it was probably only a matter of time until he put down the pen — or laptop, as it were — and took up the craft himself.

And in his latest project, Knight has done just that. In collaboration with executive producers Tracy Baim (Windy City Times, “Hannah Free“) and David Strzepek (“Hannah Free,” “Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together”) and others, Knight isn’t looking to make just any old movie, however: “Scrooge & Marley,” his first-ever feature film, is a modern-day take on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” — told with a gay sensibility.

The aim, Knight explained, is to create a gay-centric, old-fashioned holiday film, an idea he said first began to ruminate after seeing out director and screenwriter Thomas Bezucha’s 2006 film “The Family Stone.” Knight said he was so captivated by the gay couple depicted in that film that he “wanted so badly for the story to be told through their eyes.”

So for Knight, a film like “Scrooge” is “a dream come true.” In order to fund the project, which is set to begin filming in Chicago this May, Knight and his team have created an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign.

With the campaign recently launched, The Huffington Post checked in with Knight to learn more about his film.

What inspired you to put a gay twist on a classic holiday story such as “A Christmas Carol”?
I’ve been a film critic for a very long time and I write from a queer perspective. I was in a writing group with Tim Imse, who has since passed away, and [primary screenwriter of “Scrooge & Marley” and The Annoyance co-founder] Ellen Stoneking, a friend who has written many screenplays and was looking for an idea for something new to work on. At that point, we were approaching the holiday and so I said, “Why don’t you write a really good gay holiday movie?” I have never seen one. Ellen liked that idea and two seconds later, I said, “How about ‘A Christmas Carol’?” It’s in the public domain, first of all, and I also thought it would work really well coming from a gay place. We put together an outline very quickly and it went from there.

(Scroll down to watch the film’s IndieGoGo campaign video.)

It sounds like you’re sort of embracing this idea of a gay villain, which I know some filmmakers have been very hesitant to do, given the history of such sort of problematic depictions.
I do understand that concern, because for so long we [the LGBT community] did not have fair representation in films and television, so absolutely there was an initial hesitancy to have a gay villain. But then we went the reverse direction. Hello, we’re people! I think at this point culturally, there should be any problem with that. Scrooge actually redeems himself in this film. He’s a good guy in our story, or at least you understand the psychology of why he is the way that he is in much more detail. There are reasons why he is so blackhearted.

So tell me more about how “Scrooge & Marley” is set to play out — or are you keeping these things under wrap for the time being?
We’re keeping it close to the vest, but I can say that it is set in modern day and goes back to the ’70s, to Scrooge being a teenager. Of course, one plus one equals two: Being a gay teenager in the ’70s was not the best time to be out. We’ll flash forward to the ’80s and the AIDS pandemic and that will take us through to the present. The story has been changed — Nephew Fred is now a lesbian and, this is a scoop, we have signed Bruce Vilanch to play our Mr. Fezziwig, who presides over the biggest disco in town when we go back to the ’70s. It will be campy and fun until a much more serious kind of thing happens. We’ll see Bruce do something in this role that he has not done on film before.

You mentioned in the IndieGoGo video that this movie isn’t going to be about camp so much, like so many gay films are. You’re really aiming for something more in line with traditional holiday classics, correct?
Definitely. Our approach is to create a traditional Christmas movie that can be watched by and enjoyed by everybody. There will be camp elements to it and a little bit of salaciousness, but it will be based in the characters — it won’t just be there to have it. That’s certainly not the approach. I don’t know if fans of Ronnie Kroell will be really happy about that — you won’t seem him unclothed in this role — but he’ll look great, don’t worry.

We’re just not worried about the coming out story or the go-go boys or other typical gay scenes you see in films. We wanted to do this because every year, you pull out movies like “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “A Christmas Story” and “Miracle On 34th Street” and we don’t have a gay one that’s told from our perspective. Hopefully now we’ll have one.

Tell me more about how the cast and crew for this film has come together.
I knew when I was writing the script that I wanted to direct and wanted Peter Neville to be my co-director. I’ve worked with him for 20 years on various projects and he is a fantastic editor, wildly creative and we have a great chemistry together. We’ve never shot a feature, so it’s a pretty big undertaking for us, but we feel greatly supported by Tracy Baim, our producer. I’ve worked with Tracy for almost eight years as her film writer [at the Windy City Times] but known her for much longer than that. And integrity is like her middle name — when she says she’ll do something, she does it and doesn’t mess around. When I went to Tracy with our initial draft, she said she really liked it and saw a lot of potential in it from both a creative and business standpoint. She brought in David Strzepek who is a marketing wonder kid and the creative daisy chain has gotten bigger and bigger as we went along.

As for the cast, we have Megan Cavanagh who is openly gay, whom Peter has known very well for many years. She loved the script. Rusty Schwimmer is an old friend of mine who has worked in Hollywood for 23 years and worked with every major director you can name. We’re thrilled to have this level of talent for our film.

Has having this talent attached to the project helped with funding?
Just because we have some high-profile names involved does not mean that the funding comes. It does help but we’re going to try and shoot this movie that spans 30 years in 12 days. It’s not a slam dunk, particularly as a gay movie. It took Lisa Cholodenko almost eight years to get the funding for “The Kids Are All Right” with Julianne Moore on board. It’s never a given.

You mentioned that this is your first feature film you’ve worked on — is that a daunting prospect to step from the writing world into this side of things?
I think what has been saving me is learning from those around me. Everybody has their first movie and film has been my passion, I’ve written about it backwards and forwards and worked on probably every other kind of film-related project. It makes sense to me that you have to have a great script, then find really talented people to enact that script and then have great people who technically can do it. Everybody coming on board sees it as an ultra low budget labor of love.

*Baim is a blogger for The Huffington Post.

As of March 7, the “Scrooge & Marley” film’s campaign has raised just $1,775 of their $15,000 fundraising goal. Click here to learn more about what inspired the project and how you can help get their gay-centric holiday movie off the ground.

Get in touch with us at chicago@huffingtonpost.com if you have a Chicago area-based Kickstarter or IndieGoGo project that you’d like to see featured in “Can They Kick It?”

WATCH the “Scrooge & Marley” IndieGoGo campaign video:

The post Bruce Vilanch At Work On A Gay Twist On ‘A Christmas Carol’ first appeared on We Got Bruce!.