Tom Stoppard.
Photo: Jason Kempin/2013 Getty Images
Though it will be hard to compete with the indelible masterpiece that is Mickey’s Christmas Carol, writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love, Empire of the Sun) and director Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball) are teaming up for a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’s heartwarming tale of income inequality. The film will be set, for once, in the 19th century — just like Stoppard’s Anna Karenina, which was better than you remember. Miller has two Oscar nominations, while Stoppard has one win and one nomination, so expect this to be a prestigious adaptation, perhaps with turns from all those Oscar-less actors who want to prove their costume-drama clout — can we get Amy Adams in here? Maybe as a ghost?