Carrey to Appear in New "Christmas Carol" Adaptation

The prolific Jim Carrey has just announced that he will be appearing in the upcoming adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which would be something like the 40,000th screen adaptation of that work. The movie will be directed by Robert Zemeckis, who has already scored big with sentimental "Forrest Gump" and pseudo-spiritual "Contact."

Thanks to the miracle of computer animation, Carrey will play Scrooge in addition to all three of the ghosts that haunt him. The movie will feature the same "performance capture/Disney digital 3-D" animation that Zemeckis used in "The Polar Express" and the upcoming "Beowulf," which stars Angelina Jolie.

This will not be Carrey's first Christmas heartwarmer -- he appeared in Ron Howard's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." The great English actor Bob Hoskins has leaked rumors that he will also appear in the movie, though the studio has denied that they have made a deal with him. The movie will be produced by Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, and Steve Starkey through ImageMovers Digital.