Bleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights to The Man Who Invented Christmas, a new movie to be directed by Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) based on Les Standiford’s book that recounts how Charles Dickens created his iconic A Christmas Carol. Susan Coyne (Mozart in the Jungle) penned the adaptation. The pic is set to begin production in December ahead of a planned 2017 release.

Crown

Dan Stevens is aboard play the young Dickens, Christopher Plummer is Scrooge, and Jonathan Pryce will play Dickens’ father. The book, published by Crown in 2008, begins in October 1843, when Dickens was broke and distressed with his previous three books having failed. Rejected by his publishers, he set out to write and self-publish a book he hoped would keep his family afloat, and after six fever-pitched weeks, he created A Christmas Carol.

Robert Mickelson and Ian Sharples are producing, with Paula Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan, Andrew Karpen and Vadim Jean executive producing. Parallel Films and Rhombus Media are co-production partners.

The Solution is handling international rights outside the territories not picked up by Bleecker Street. The production company also acquired rights in Eastern Europe, Benelux, Scandinavia and Latin America.

“The Man Who Invented Christmas is an emotionally rich story of Dickens’ creative process and illustrates his love of the holiday spirit,” said Karpen, Bleecker Street’s CEO. “We look forward to bringing Bharat’s film to audiences for the 2017 holiday season.”

Bleecker Street is shepherding its awards-season pics Eye in the Sky, Denial and Captain Fantastic.