KELSEY GRAMMER - FRASIER'S KELSEY GRAMMER TO PLAY SCROOGE IN NEW SATIRE

FRASIER'S KELSEY GRAMMER TO PLAY SCROOGE IN NEW SATIRE

Kelsey Grammer is to step into Dickensian times by reprising the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a new satirical movie.

The Frasier star has already played the skinflint character in NBC-Hallmark's TV movie of A Christmas Carol in 2004.

And in An American Carol, the new movie from Airplane writer David Zucker, he will play a 21st-century Scrooge.

Though he penned the classic flight comedy as well as all three Naked Gun films, Zucker has stuck to the director's chair in recent years, helming the likes of BASEketball and the third and fourth instalments in the Scary Movie franchise.

But he has teamed up with Myrna Sokoloff to script and direct An American Carol, an independent satire which "lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood", according to Variety.

Shooting will begin on February 28th in Los Angeles, though Grammer will continue to work on his Fox sitcom Back to You.

The former Cheers star, a five-time Emmy award-winner, can next be seen in Disney's political comedy Swing Vote, set for an August release in the US.

Joshua Michael Stern's film also stars Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper and Stanley Tucci, and tells of a presidential election which hangs on one man's vote.