--- title: Ice Cube to Play Scrooge in Christmas Carol Reboot Humbug description: Ice Cube is stepping into some seasonal shoes canonical: https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-18T19:44:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:46:59.621Z og:title: Ice Cube Will Play Scrooge in a New 'Christmas Carol' Reboot og:description: In this version, Scrooge is a wealthy real estate mogul og:url: https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc79c0cb22e5a6434/69885e640b72e3231b6e54c3/ice-cube-straight-outta-compton1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ice Cube Straight Outta Compton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ice Cube Will Play Scrooge in a New 'Christmas Carol' Reboot twitter:description: In this version, Scrooge is a wealthy real estate mogul twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc79c0cb22e5a6434/69885e640b72e3231b6e54c3/ice-cube-straight-outta-compton1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ice Cube Will Play Scrooge in a New _Christmas Carol_ Reboot by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Sep 18, 2015 7:44 PM UTC  Rebecca Cabage—Invision/AP by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Sep 18, 2015 7:44 PM UTC Ice Cube is already known for his “[trademark scowl](http://www.usatoday.com/videos/life/people/2015/08/12/31517933/),” so really, he should have no problem playing iconic curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge in an upcoming _A Christmas Carol_ reboot. The new film will be called Humbug and will offer a contemporary retelling of the Charles Dickens classic, _Deadline_ [reports](http://deadline.com/2015/09/ice-cube-humbug-universal-tim-story-scrooge-relativity-media-1201530673/). The rapper’s version of Scrooge will be a wealthy real estate mogul, but otherwise, the story sounds like it won’t change too much. The ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future will all visit him, lead him to redemption, and so on. Ice Cube [has been busy ](http://time.com/3989041/ice-cube-straight-outta-compton-bye-felicia-ghostwriting/)with this summer’s _Straight Outta Compton_, which documents his time with the hip hop group N.W.A. He didn’t actually appear in it (his son played him) but he did produce it. There’s no official release date for _Humbug_ yet, but _Deadline_ speculates that it could be out in 2017. ### Here’s How the _Straight Outta Compton_ Actors Compare to Their Real-Life Counterparts  O'Shea Jackson, Jr. (Ice Cube's real life son) as Ice Cube Universal Pictures; Raymond Boyd—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre Universal Pictures; Raymond Boyd—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E Universal Pictures; Al Pereira—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Neil Brown, Jr. as DJ Yella Universal Pictures; Raymond Boyd—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  Aldis Hodge as MC Ren Universal Pictures; Al Pereira—Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)  Paul Giamatti as Jerry Heller Universal Pictures; Victor Chavez—WireImage/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/"},"headline":"Ice Cube Will Play Scrooge in a New Christmas Carol Reboot","datePublished":"2015-09-18T19:44:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:46:59.621Z","description":"In this version, Scrooge is a wealthy real estate mogul","url":"https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc79c0cb22e5a6434/69885e640b72e3231b6e54c3/ice-cube-straight-outta-compton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc79c0cb22e5a6434/69885e640b72e3231b6e54c3/ice-cube-straight-outta-compton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ice Cube Straight Outta Compton","caption":"Ice Cube Straight Outta Compton","creditText":"Rebecca Cabage—Invision/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4040812/ice-cube-scrooge-humbug-movie/","name":"Ice Cube Will Play Scrooge in a New Christmas Carol Reboot"}}]}] ```