NEWS
Back to the drawing board
22 Jun 2000 by M.T. Moura
Hello? Hello?? Anybody there?! As I left for some short vacations, the media was all hyped up on the surprising news that Jim Carrey was going to star in Joel Schumacher's pseudo-indie movie "Phone Booth", produced by Fox. It's true that I had some doubts about this project, mainly due to the fact that having a character on screen consecutively for 2 hours without losing the audience's interest is an almost impossible task. But the challenge inherent, accompanied by promises of Internet streaming of rehearsals and other behind-the-scenes happenings, ended up unleashing the curiosity demon.
Back to the lair, and as I went through two weeks of accumulated e-mail (and a king-size jet lag), it became clear that my mailbox was about to explode with messages reporting that Jim Carrey had nixed the project after just a few days of negotiations. The reasons stated ranged from not being able to relate to the character to wanting to continue to enjoy some time off from the movie-making biz.
Although it is obvious that Jim Carrey has the right to change his mind as many times as he wants, the sudden backtracking on this project is frankly unusual specially if we consider that Carrey and his management team have given many proofs of carefully and thoughtfully planning his career moves (perhaps with exception of the infamous $20 Million for "The Cable Guy"). Maybe the news leaked too soon? Or Fox, now that a major star was on board, decided to turn the story into something more "commercial"? We'll probably never know for sure.
But whatever the reason was, Carrey's departure from "Phone Booth" really doesn't qualify as a major disappointment, specially if we consider that there were other more interesting projects which he was said to be linked to, particularly "Survivor". So, for the moment, the agenda seems to be blank again but luckily, as we wait for new developments, there's still plenty to look forward, from the immediate "Me, Myself & Irene" to "Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas".
-- With a big Spank You to Phil, s.a._jcfan, Shrinky Dinx, Matt and Steven at jim.carrey.heaven for the info. Click to comment this article.
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