Is THE BEAVER about to bring back the Jim Carrey we like?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

The odd crossings in the career paths of the much compared comedians Steve Carell and Jim Carrey is set to continue according to The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Business Blog, which as far as I can tell, is an outlet that exists for the trade when they only have a loose shred of evidence but not enough to give a full official story. They say Steve Carell, who was only ever loosely attached to Kyle Kilen's Black List screenplay The Beaver has been unable to commit to the project, and director Jay Roach has also dropped out. Jim Carrey is said to be interested in stepping into Carell's shoes and has emerged as the leading candidate to play a man who wears a beaver puppet on his arm, which he talks to and treats as a companion. It's a lot like Lars and the Real Girl (in which the inanamate object was a blow up sex doll) and has the offbeat sense of a Charlie Kaufman script. It's not Ace Ventura by any means, this is a offbeat comedy more in the vein of the ones which win critical acclaim, the ones that carry the emotional pathos of something like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In other words, the Jim Carrey we like. Carrey's attachment will come down to the choice of director, which rather surprisingly has already seen veteran actress Jodie Foster, who last helmed the 1995 rom-com Home for the Holidays and the early 90's drama Little Man Tate, meet producers to discuss the picture. Carry is in desperate need of a hit with his last few efforts not finding an audience and I Love You Philip Morris, his riskiest picture in a while (the movie has quite explicit gay scenes) is yet to secure a U.S. release. And although this sounds outside the mainstream, if marketed right, it could be a Jim Carrey picture that reminds us why we have paid so much money to see him in films over the years.