The Troubled Production Of Walter Mitty

Jim Carrey was cast in the role of Walter Mitty in the remake of the 1947 film based on James Thurber's 1939 short story, originally published in the New Yorker. Indeed, there are many films that have - throughout my film fanatic consciousness - languished in development Hell and, of late, quite a few have finally emerged blinking into the light; most recently came 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', which had fascinated me and - to some extent - a project that Mitty bares a strong resemblance in its whimsical, diverse narrative. Though hopefully any actualised film version will have a stronger story and characters, rather than be a sub-'Forrest Gump' effects vehicle. Thurber's short story is about the meek, mild Mitty who divulges in a rich fantasy life; daydreaming himself as a wartime pilot, a skilled surgeon, an assassin. The Norman Z. McLeod directed feature starring Danny Kaye stretches the story to include a more put-upon Mitty, who finds himself caught up in a real life adventure when a woman - closely resembling his own dream vision - hands him a black book containing the location of hidden Dutch crown jewels. The confusing conspiracy that forces Mitty to realise that being a hero isn't all he imagined seems perfectly straightforward when contrasted with the current remake's production history... It's been announced that Steven Conrad, writer of 'The Pursuit of Happyness', is to take a punt at the script for 20th Century Fox's current production, and in other recent casting news the title role has reportedly been offered to 'Borat' and 'Bruno' star Sacha Baron Cohen. Whether any of this will lead to the film actually going before cameras is another story, one that must be prefaced by the following: Samuel Goldwyn Jr., whose father produced the original 'Mitty' movie, put together the Jim Carrey starring remake proposal back in the mid-nineties, the project was for New Line and'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' scribes Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz turned in a draft of the script. Ron Howard was touted as the director on a project, which by this point, had already been brewing for three years. But Howard, and producing partner Brian Grazer, left to pursue 'EDtv', which ironically floundered at the box office in the wake of similarly plotted Jim Carrey starrer (and modern classic) 'The Truman Show'. Chuck Russell, director of Jim Carrey film 'The Mask', was hired by New Line in 1999 to re-write and potentially helm the movie, starting in 2000, but the project was delayed once more with various other screenwriters brought in to try and figure out how best to tell the story within a contemporary setting. TV stalwart and 'Analyze This' scribe Peter Tolan took a crack at the story, but the project was beset by legal problems when Goldwyn filed a lawsuit against New Line over breach of contract in 2001. Goldwyn won the suit and took the project to Paramount, who was working with Dreamworks at the time on 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events', Steven Spielberg - the 'S' in Dreamworks SKG - became interested in the project and working with Jim Carrey; the pair had considered 'Meet The Parents' as a collaboration at one point! So in 2003 Spielberg agreed to direct and 'Stranger Than Fiction' writer Zach Helm was writing the project, but Spielberg and Dreamworks jumped ship in favour of 'War of the Worlds' and 'Munich'. 'The Fisher King' and 'Freedom Writers' scribe Richard LaGravenese worked for ten months on the project, with Goldwyn particularly vocal about how successful his draft was and Paramount hired 'Freaky Friday' and 'Mean Girls' director Mark Waters to step behind the lens; but by this point Carrey dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and Owen Wilson was set to replace him. With their option on the remake rights about to expire Paramount set a start date of December 12th 2005; they would lose their rights if filming hadn't begun by December 20th! But Wilson dropped out over 'creative differences' and Paramount had never contracted a female co-star, despite Scarlett Johansson recording a positively received screen test with Wilson. The project went into turnaround and Goldwyn made a deal with 20th Century Fox who, in May 2007, cast Mike Myers in the lead role. 'The Simpsons' writer and supervising producer Jay Kogen was hired to write a script to specifically suit Mike Myers' talents (undoubtedly he'd have to do a Scottish accent at some point) and finally that leads us to these recent annoucments. Any news about 'Walter Mitty' has to be taken with a healthy dose of reality, it's beginning to become something of a heroic fantasy for Goldwyn, who's in danger - like Mitty - of never succeeding in any of his adventures.