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The surly miser Ebenezer Scrooge is no longer just a fictional character haunting the holidays — he’s on Venmo.
To promote Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of the notorious character in the film “Ebenezer,” starring Johnny
Depp in the titular role, the team created a Venmo account for Ebenezer Scrooge. The official account for the film posted on X, writing “Ebenezer Scrooge is now on @venmo. Think he’s feeling generous? 💰 Send a request: https://venmo.com/u/EBENEZERmovie” accompanied by a video of people making requests for various amounts of money and Scrooge’s stingy payouts.
Unfortunately, it appears Scrooge is even more of a penny pincher than his promotion lets on. An error message reading, “We’re sorry the transaction could not be completed. Please contact the person you’re trying to pay” appears when two Variety staffers tried to request some spare change. Variety reached out to Paramount Pictures to see if the Venmo was actually up and running and just went down due to an influx of users, was never live and just a promotional tool, or something else.
Although Scrooge’s Venmo isn’t dishing out money, he looks to be accepting it. The public feed of his account is filled with payments made out to him. “For cheers and joy! (And maybe a little luck please)” one benefactor wrote. Another wrote, “$ Retainer Fee — for the Ghost of Christmas Past to haunt my exes with a little bah humbug spirit.” Several others paid Scrooge to boost his Christmas spirit.
It is unclear who this money is actually going to, how much these people Venmoed and whether or not the account is actually transferring the money.
Paramount Pictures’ “Ebenezer” will hit theaters on Nov. 13. The official logline reads: “The name you know, the story you don’t.” Judging from the trailer, West — known for directing the horror trilogy “X” — is zooming in on the darker aspects of Charles Dickens’ beloved story, showing Depp’s character being haunted by some seriously scary ghosts and getting buried alive.
Depp plays the titular character alongside Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Sam Claflin, Daisy Ridley, Arthur Conti, Ellie Bamber, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Charlie Murphy, Tramell Tillman and Ian McKellen. Based on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Halpern adapted the screenplay.
“Ebenezer” marks Depp’s return home to Hollywood for the holidays as his first major movie since his highly publicized 2022 trial against ex-wife Amber Heard. Both Depp and Heard accused the other of domestic abuse and defamation during their relationship, with Depp ultimately awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages from Heard, while Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages. His last major Hollywood studio film was “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” in 2018.
