Commentary: Johnny Depp hits the streets of London at the 'Ebenezer' premiere, where ghosts of Dickens' fable abound

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Set us as preferred LONDON — In the legendary shopping district of Regent Street, the holiday lights are already ablaze, a host of illuminated angels spreading their sparkling wings above the passersby.The sales and the Christmas wassailing have begun.On the telly, charities are asking for donations to bring the homeless off the streets into warmth and shelter.All that was missing from festive London, that “good old city” in Charles Dickens’ words:The humbug.And on an early wintry wind, that absent element blew into town on Monday with the premiere of Johnny Depp’s big Hollywood return, as the 183-year-old miser Ebenezer Scrooge.The premiere of “Ebenezer” in Leicester Square sent guests, stars and the film’s creative team walking down not an ordinary red carpet but through Paramount’s stylized version of a Victorian Christmastime street, with a sugaring of studio-effect snow and — déjà vu to the premieres of the “Pirates” franchise — worshipful fans massed against crowd barriers and straining for a glimpse of celebrities, principally Depp, who made his leisurely way along, obliging the clamor for selfies and signatures.This was Depp’s first studio film in eight years (after his high-profile divorce from Amber Heard and the subsequent defamation trial), and Paramount splashed out to make it momentous, the finale to Depp’s earlier in-character appearances at Comic-Con in San Diego and in New York’s Bryant Park, where he did furious battle with a Christmas tree.The first film version of “A Christmas Carol,” in 1901, was about six minutes long, and only half of it survives.

Since then, we have had animated Scrooges, a Muppets-paired Scrooge, musical and theatrical and sadistic and parody Scrooges, sublime and ridiculous Scrooges (Patrick Stewart and Jim Carrey), George C.Scott’s Scrooge, al...