Fans hoping to see Jim Carrey return to his moronic roots in a sequel to 1994's Dumb and Dumber were no doubt ecstatic when all the talk of the film finally happening started to grow. While it's been talked about for awhile, mainly to wash the bad taste of When Harry Met Lloyd out of our collective mouths, it was all last year that the Farrelly Brothers and Carrey talked the film up. Writers were hired to bang out a script, and Jeff Daniels was said to be all in as well, with filming possibly to begin this fall. Well, scratch that.
ET reports that Carrey has now left the film, which he revealed the title to be Dumb and Dumber To. It's not because of his schedule or anything, either. Nor is it due to creative differences. Nobody was more gung-ho for the film than Carrey, and clearly he felt like others involved weren't playing up to his level....
Carrey: "I would have thought Dumb and Dumber To was a no-brainer, after all it's implied in the title."
Sounds like the folks at Warner Brothers and New Line didn't quite see the benefit of revisiting a twenty year old hit featuring two actors that aren't exactly in their prime. Carrey isn't exactly the biggest draw anymore, although he seems to be edging his way back. And nobody turns up at the movies to see Daniels, despite his being a great actor. He'll be starring in Aaron Sorkin's HBO series, The Newsroom, and will probably be great in it. There was just too much working against this ever happening, not the least of which is the dismal response to the Farrelly Brothers' The Three Stooges.
The Steve Carell-led magician comedy, Burt Wonderstone, is in Carrey's future, and it may be the film that puts him back into the spotlight. Maybe if that's a hit, Carrey can start calling his own shots again. Dumb and Dumber fans are probably disappointed, but to me it feels like we all just dodged a major bullet.
