#Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell Face Off as Christmas Musical Spirited Begins Filming

Filming has officially begun on Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell’s Spirited, a musical take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for Apple TV+. Reynolds announced the news on his very active Twitter feed, posting an image of the pair standing face to face on Day 1 of shooting. The movie was originally announced at the beginning of the year, with Octavia Spencer being sought by the casting team to join the funnymen in the latest adaptation of the classic Christmas story.

Day 1 shooting with one of my comedy idols, Will Ferrell. You’d barely notice this was an @Apple movie!

Also iOS 14.6 will begin installing in 7 seconds… pic.twitter.com/m4WNeIgGq4

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) July 6, 2021

“Day 1 shooting with one of my comedy idols, Will Ferrell. You’d barely notice this was an @Apple movie! Also iOS 14.6 will begin installing in 7 seconds…” Reynolds posted, although he did cause some confusing with an initial post that was subsequently deleted. The star original posted the same tweet but in his iOS update joke, he mentioned that “iOS 9.3.3” would soon be installing. It was quickly pointed out if that was the case, Reynolds must be living in 2016. The original post can be seen below.

While we live in 2021 (14.6), the @VancityReynolds lives in 2016 (9.3.3) pic.twitter.com/PNm4lcuL30

— ilya (@1lyarn) July 6, 2021

As originally reported back in February, Spirited is written and directed by Sean Anders and John Morris, the duo behind Ferrell’s Daddy’s Home movies. The official synopsis of the movie reads: “A musical version of the classic Christmas story by Charles Dickens. A miserly man who treats everyone around him with terrible selfishness finds himself on a fantastical adventure into the three phases of time: past, present, and future, in order to discover how he ended up so miserable and alone.”

Ryan Reynolds will be playing the Scrooge character who will find his night being invaded by three fine spirits with the intention of making him a much happier human in future by showing him his unfulfilling past. Ferrell will be playing the Ghost of Christmas Present, while Glow star Sunita Mani is signed on to play the Ghost of Christmas Past. Octavia Spencer is said to be playing a co-worker of Reynold’s who also aims to help him change his miserable ways.

While there has been little information dropped about the movie, I don’t think we are likely to get any surprises from Spirited in terms of story. There are very few people who haven’t seen at least one version of A Christmas Carol in its many forms, whether the classic Alastair Sim version, the glorious and still outstanding Muppet’s Christmas Carol, Bill Murray’s Scrooged or the recent, much more adult and brutal TV mini series starring Tom Hardy and Andy Serkis.

Speaking of Bill Murray’s brilliantly dark and funny Scrooged, which was directed by Richard Donner, there is something about the inclusion of Octavia Spencer’s “co-worker” in Spirited does make it sound to be very much along the same lines. If this turns out to be the case, it will be giving itself a bit of a mountain to climb to beat what is arguably one of Murray’s best performances. There is currently no release date set for Spirited to arrive on Apple TV+, but with shooting just getting started it seems unlikely to arrive until next Christmas.