Courtesy of: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090501/entertainment/centertainment_us_carrey/
“Jim Carrey has emerged as a leading candidate to star in “The Beaver,” an offbeat comedy-drama that centers on the relationship between a man and a beaver puppet he wears on his arm. Kyle Killen’s script has generated enormous interest in film development circles, drawing comparisons to “Being John Malkovich” and “Lars and the Real Girl.”
I think its great to see Carrey revisiting the art cinema route.
Carrey’s career has lost momentum since the release of his last art cinema project. That film was Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The surreal film is regarded by many (including myself) as his most ambitious and interesting film. Since that film, Carrey starred in the overwrought Dr Seuss vehicle “Horton Hears A Who,” as well as “Lemony Snicket…,” another children’s book adaptation. There was also the critically panned “The Number 23.” At the bottom of the pile, the film that had great potential of destroying Jim Carrey’s career “Fun with Dick and Jane,” which managed to be one of the least funny and entertaining studio comedies ever. I consider the recent “Yes Man” to be a decent chuckle, despite its oft-cited parallels with Carrey’s earlier )and superior) “Liar, Liar.” ln post-production right now, Carrey’s next performance is in yet another remake of “A Christmas Carol.” My question is why?? Does the world need yet another remake of a film perfected in 1951?? Carrey seems to have played it largely safe in the last few years, which is why the announcement of this upcoming art cinema project hopefully signals a renaissance in Carrey’s career, who proved in “Eternal Sunshine…” his ability as an actor when presented with a good script. Its not all about playing with his rubbery face anymore.
One of the biggest pieces of major news information to drop over the last few days was out courtesy of Robert Zemeckis, director of the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Forrest Gump,” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” among others. Lately, when asked by MTV News, he admitted “I’ll tell you what is buzzing around in my head now that we have the ability—the digital tools, performance capture—I’m starting to think about ‘Roger Rabbit.” My question is whether or not “Roger” would lose much of his charm if it was spiffed up with CGI. Personally, because that film is so intimately woven with the memories of my childhood, I feel a slick CGI version would be as superfluous as the upcoming “Tron 2.0” sequel(never trust a movie with 2.0 in the title!). Part of what made Roger work was the seamless interaction between a cartoon world ( i.e.the cartoons looked like cartoons, which is what made the movie work) and live action, was the witty and fun script. Hopefully, any sequel would not become so preoccupied with visual grandiosity that it would become not unlike most animated films now, a series of cultural references strung together with a threadbare plot. Any sequel would have to remember the importance of the script could not be forgotten in the midst of making the movie look cool (otherwise known as George Lucas syndrome). Even with a recent viewing at my cynical age of 27, I find the original film holds up well and any sequel would have big paws (sorry!) to fill. News courtesy of http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2009/04/29/exclusive-robert-zemeckis-buzzing-about-second-roger-rabbit-movie/
Twitter alert: for all you sci fi/action fans out there, “Swingers” and original “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau is hoping to repeat his success with “Iron Man 2”, which is currently in production. Periodically, he leaves tweets concerning the state of the production. Although they do not reveal any meaty behind-the-scenes secrets, it is certainly worth checking out as we await the new film. Also, find the first released photo from the set here: http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-04-30-first-look-ironman2_N.htm
To no one’s huge surprise, the new Wolverine opened to huge box-office (87 million dollar opening weekend!) which put bed that the early internet leak of a rough cut of the film was going to cut into the movie’s box office haul. Personally, I still adore the ritual of the cinema–the popcorn smell, the huge screen, the great sound–even the presence of an audience add a distinct flavour to the experience. Just as audiophiles will never be satisfied with the MP3, most appreciators of cinema should recognize that DVD and Blu-Ray, not to mention a bootleg watched on your computer screen, still don’t match what a theatre provides. Not only as a delivery system, but as an institution. The industry need not continue fretting so much about leaks, as long as the product they put out is what audiences want to see(even if the Wayans Brothers are involved), the theatre will hopefully live on.
Keep your eyes out for further news updates.
Drew Williamson is a resident film geek of Ottawa, Ontario. He will be coming at you with Sound On Sight’s new Film News blogger selecting stories of interest from the celluloid world accompanied by his not-so-humble opinion.