Saturday, November 17

• A glimpse of Christmas future

  With their 3-D dazzler Beowulf debuting in theaters this weekend, director Robert Zemeckis and his team of visual effects wizards are already at work on their next CGI "performance capture" flick, A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey set to star as history's most notorious miser, Ebenezer Scrooge.

  At the recent Beowulf press day, Zemeckis' producer Steve Starkey described the look of their take on Charles Dickens classic as "very much like (Joseph Mallord William) Turner's paintings from the middle of the 19th century. That's what London's gonna look like -- and it's really quite beautiful...we can rebuild London from historical references and actually create the exact London of the time that Scrooge is walking through."

  "Tom Hanks is not attached," Starkey replied when asked about the rumors that Hanks had been cast in the role of Bob Cratchit.

  
  
  Next Showing: A Christmas Carol opens November 6, 2007.

  Posted 11/17/2007 by Thomas

  Robert Zemeckis | Steve Starkey | Tom Hanks | Jim Carrey | Beowulf | Beowulf 3D | A Christmas Carol

Friday, July 6

• Jim Carrey loves to hate Christmas

  Jim Carrey has just signed to star as Ebenezer Scrooge--as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future--in a Robert Zemeckis written/directed version of A Christmas Carol, reports Variety.. The elastic-faced comedian appears to have a penchant for playing Christmas-hating characters, as anyone who saw him in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas will realize. Perhaps some unresolved issues from his childhood?

  The movie, which will be produced by Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey, and Zemeckis under their ImageMovers company, will be made with "performance capture/Disney digital 3-D" animation combined with live action and computer graphics. Zemeckis wrote the script specifically for Carrey, so it's a good thing he said yes.

  Bob Hoskins is also reported to be in the movie, as he let slip to the press, although no deals have been officially confirmed as yet.

  Some quick stats:

  Number of movies (silent, TV, animated, theatrical, etc.) named A Christmas Carol  - 28. This does not include 1988's fabulous Scrooged.

  Number of upcoming projects to which Carrey is attached: 5. (Robert Ripley in Tim Burton's Ripley's Believe it Or Not!; a gay prison escapee in I Love You Phillip Morris [from the Bad Santa team]; a 'reluctant nursemaid' in Me Time, and starring in comedies A Christmas Carol and Sober Buddies.)

  What's 28 minus 5? The Number 23 - Jim Carrey's last movie. Coincidence? We think not.

  
  

  Posted 07/06/2007 by Heather

  Bob Hoskins | Robert Zemeckis | Jim Carrey | Ripley's Believe it or Not! | Sober Buddies | Me Time | I Love You Phillip Morris | A Christmas Carol