NEWS
News on "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" remake
14 Feb 1998 It was recently reported by Reuters/Variety that Jim Carrey is going to reunite with old friend writer/director Steve Oedekerk ("Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"), for the remake of the 1964 Don Knotts comedy "The Incredible Mr. Limpet".
Warner Bros. will be producing the movie and Steve Oedekerk is said to write and direct the remake. Barry Levinson ("Wag the Dog") will be the producer in charge and shooting is set to begin this spring. The studio still has to settle the financial details with Carrey, but that is being looked upon as a simple formality.
According to Variety, Oedekerk couldn’t resist the idea to re-team with Carrey and be able to fiddle with the high-tech computer animation that’ll allow him to turn Carrey into a fish.
Carrey will be playing the title character first portrayed by Don Knotts. The original movie plot was about a milquetoast patriotic guy who was turned down by the Navy, due to being nearsighted. By falling in the water, he miraculously turns into a fish, becoming the Navy’s secret weapon during WWII.
Oedekerk stated that he really liked the first movie but the remake "needs to be set in the present day. The main hook will be there, that for whatever reason a guy ends up becoming a fish. But the original was set in its own time, with the Nazis, the Navy submarines. The basic gist of the character arc will be the same, but the overall storyline will be contemporized."
The director also said that "the way it will be shot will be entirely different, too, than a normal physical production. A lot of the film will be created inside a computer, so your limits go completely away. You can make it look like whatever you want, have the camera move however you want. I'll be basically be popping back and forth from physical production and computer generated work."
Oedekerk is planning on beginning right away on a draft of the script. "The way we usually work, I do a pass and finish the script, and then Jim and I live together for a couple of weeks, and do a pass to slam out the comedy", said Oedekerk, "the rest will be the animation. It won't feel it, except for having this freak fish with Jim's face on it, but it will look photo-realistic and yet we'll get to experience this whole underwater world."
Variety also reported that Carrey is considering on scheduling "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" even before "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Fool on the Hill", both still in development-hell stage.
» Send to friend
« Newer article | Overview | Older article »
