Twenty-six years later, Jim Carrey is returning to one of his most iconic performances. In somewhat surprising news, Universal has greenlit a sequel to 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with Carrey in talks to star as the titular holiday heel. Ron Howard will also be back behind the director’s chair.
Of course, the character sprang from the mind of Dr. Seuss, but Carrey really made it his own. The original movie was a smash hit, earning $351M worldwide and winning an Oscar for Best Makeup. Coincidentally, Carrey has talked about the arduous makeup process which took over 2 1/2 hours a day, which he called like being “buried alive.”
So yeah, it’s surprising that he wants to come back at all. Certainly, the makeup process should’ve been made easier over the last two decades. Otherwise, I don’t think he’d do it. Carrey has largely pulled himself away from acting, other than the Dr. Robotnik role in the Sonic movies, which he’s admitted are for the cashola. Nothing wrong with that, and Carrey, again, made that role his own.
As for Howard, his last film was 2024’s Eden, a starry historical thriller that nobody saw. He just wrapped on Alone at Dawn, a war film starring Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway.
Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer, and David Mandel, a trio known for writing Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld, are teaming on the script. They also have Seuss experience, having penned 2003’s The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers. [THR]
