A New Live Read Of It's A Wonderful Life Will Star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson, Mark Hamill & More

Your dad's favorite holiday movie is getting the celebrity live read treatment, and it's actually kind of sweet. Instead of spending two hours on the couch drinking your way through the Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," you've been invited to spend two hours lounging around someone's laptop as you watch names like Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson, Mark Hamill and more read out all of your favorite "It's a Wonderful Life" scenes. I would still 100% recommend pouring yourself more than a few glasses of egg nog, but at the very least, it'll be nice to mix it up this year.

For this very special table read, Turner Classic Movies is teaming up with The Ed Asner Family Center (TEAFC), which provides support to children with special needs and their families. The whole shebang is also sponsored by MeTV and will honor Mike Darnell, President of Unscripted and Alternative Television at Warner Brothers. So you can feel good about the $25 ticket and fully get into the reason for the season. 

Let's talk about that cast though, because that is obviously the huge draw for table reads like these and it's pretty different from the table read TEAFC hosted last year, which cast Pete Davidson as George Bailey. Of course, Sudeikis, who is going through his very own renaissance with his almost universally adored "Ted Lasso" role, will be taking on the role of George Bailey. It only makes sense considering his brand is very much Hot Dad right now. In a fun family twist, his real life uncle George Wendt ("Cheers") will be taking on the role of Uncle Billy, which makes this sort of a fun family reunion. Besides those two roles, I think we can assume that Rosario Dawson will be our Mary, but there are so many other famous names attached to this read, it's a little hard to guess them all.

Besides the folks already listed, you can also expect to see Martin Sheen, Jean Smart, Phil Lamaar, Mandy Patinkin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Ed Harris, Ron Funches and Ben Mankiewicz. So many names! So many possibilities. On top of that, "Atypical" actors Spencer Harte and Domonique Brown will be joining the live read along with Mike Darnell's daughter and the Social Director of TEAFC Chelsea Darnell and neurodivergent TEAFC members Ryan Booth and Lucas Salusky.

The online table read will take place on December 5, 2021, so consider it your first foray into the holiday season. Gather up the family, eat a big meal, drink a couple of drinks, and bond over your all of family member's individual crushes on Jason Sudeikis. We all have one.