Fans of Charles Dickens and actor Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) "should have great expectations" for The Man Who Invented Christmas, Entertainment Weekly commented in featuring a first peek at the main character. Directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) from a script written by Susan Coyne and set in 1843, the film "details how a broke and depressed Dickens wrote one of his most famous tales." The cast includes Jonathan Pryce and Christopher Plummer.
"It was a really spooky, intriguing, funny piece," said Stevens. "I just thought it was a really fresh take on that whole world. Particularly in England, Dickens is placed on a pedestal. But the guy was, at turns, quite playful and childish, and, at turns, quite dark and not a very pleasant man.... Dickens whips himself into such a state that he conjures these characters. Scrooge arrives and haunts him and taunts him. It's quite an interesting dynamic."
