Richard Curtis remakes his Christmas romcom Bernard And The Genie

Here’s the first trailer for Genie –  the remake of Richard Curtis’s  Christmas romcom Bernard And The Genie, starring Melissa McCarthy and Paapa Essiedu.

In the original, which aired on BBC One in 1991,  Alan Cumming played an art dealer who discovered a genie, played by Lenny Henry, in a bottle.

Cumming makes a comeback in this version, but now playing the tyrannical  boss of Essiedu’s Bernard Bottle – a role played by Rowan Atkinson in the original.

McCarthy takes the part of the genie, Flora, trapped for more than 2,000 years inside an antique jewellery box until she is awakened in modern-day New York.

Co-stars in the new version, also written by Curtis, include comic Marc Maron, Luis Guzmán, who plays Gomez Addams on Wednesday and Tate Ellington from military drama series The Brave.

Genie is directed by Sam Boyd – creator of the Anna Kendrick romantic comedy anthology   Love Life – and premieres in the US on November 22, and on demand in the UK from December 1. 

Published: 3 Nov 2023