That hurricane-sized collective sigh of relief you hear is coming from the Culver City studios of Sony Pictures.
Sony and Columbia Pictures have had to endure the worst sorts of Hollywood rumors–that their Jim Carrey comedy “Fun With Dick & Jane” was a “troubled project.”
There were the reports of hefty script rewrites–true. The more than two weeks of last-minute reshoots–also true. And word from the set that the ever-perfectionist Carrey, a producer as well as star, was hogging the camera for up to 40 takes at times–well, no comment. And how about the $100 million budget?
Even Carrey, who produced the film with Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, has no clear explanation.
“Maybe somebody is buying golden toilet seats somewhere,” Carrey offers, adding: “Ask the Pentagon what they do.”
While no one knows how “Fun With Dick & Jane” will fare when it opens Wednesday, advance screenings suggest it won’t be the embarrassment that some in Hollywood have predicted. Indeed, word is the film has tested great after the filmmakers made the necessary tweaks and that Carrey has not “gone dark” with his comedy instincts the way he did in 1996’s “The Cable Guy.”
Carrey loyalists actually can rest easy, for “Fun With Dick & Jane” showcases Carrey in all his maniacal, elastic-face, bulging-eyes, comic fury. Director Dean Parisot allows the comedian to run wild–whether it’s a mangled attempt to whip out a toy squirt gun during a convenience-store heist or unintentionally zapping himself in the neck while demonstrating how the electrically charged collar works to keep the family pooch in line.
Still, there is no reason why “Dick & Jane” should have cost more than $100 million, as there are few special effects, and it’s in the 90-minute range.
“I don’t know why movies cost so much,” Carrey says, adding that whenever a studio makes a movie, it seems things cost more. It certainly never happened, he said, when he made “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Carrey, by the way, commands up to $30 million per picture.
“Fun With Dick and Jane” is a remake of the 1977 film starring George Segal and Jane Fonda. The movie, about an ambitiously upscale couple trying to stem an economic descent with a comical crime spree, was considered a misfire in its time.
“It’s no vaunted classic, so nothing sacrilegious is going on here,” said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo.
And if the public perceives him to be in the right vehicle, Carrey is a powerhouse.
“You get Jim Carrey in a straightforward comedy, and it’s through the roof,” Gray said. “Attempts to stretch things other than his face have led to some box-office failures such as ‘The Majestic.’ “
Carrey isn’t bothered by the remake label on “Fun With Dick & Jane.”
“I don’t like to do anything unoriginal,” he said. “I’m always a little weary about it. But in this case, I felt it was ripe to be done because of the social climate in the world” with Enron and other corporate scandals.
Carrey and co-star Tea Leoni portray an upper-middle-class married couple, Dick and Jane Harper, who fall on hard times after Dick’s company closes down amid scandal. Dick lands a job as a greeter at a Wal-Mart-like big-box store, but the couple begin staging a series of nighttime robberies to make ends meet.
Carrey often is at his best when he improvises. There was a scene, director Parisot recalled, in which Carrey and Leoni have their victim tied up before they take his paintings. What makes the scene work is the way the couple, Carrey in particular, play with devices that distort their voices, an element not in the script.
“At the last second, my prop guy had these voice boxes that are a kid’s toy,” the director said. “I showed it to Jim, and immediately he takes the voice box [and begins improvising]. Literally, there are two hours of footage from that scene where he is going on with that.”
The director said the rewrites on the film totaled about half of the 30-page figure that has been reported. He also said only four scenes required reshoots.
Carrey says it took a lot of time to get this film the way he wanted.
“It’s just really important to me that I don’t suck!” Carrey said. “What it comes down to at this point is, I’ve made a ton of money. The only reason I want to keep going comes down to that person in the seat.”
