A Story to Likely Have Your Attention
It didn’t quite seem plausible when I heard from an acquaintance outside of my work a few nights ago that Jim Carrey was working with Jennifer Lawrence in the filming of the third installment of Hunger Games. As it happened, I was tending to one of my customer’s tables at the restaurant where I work evenings in Atlanta, which for those who don’t know, has become a center for filming activity especially with the likes of Hunger Games, Walking Dead, The Internship, Fast & Furious 7 among others.
Well my guests had just sat down at an indoor table and the gentlemen indicated that he had left his glasses in the car, precluding his ability to read the menu. I volunteered to personally go outside to speak with the valet and retrieve his eye wear so that he could for himself look over the food choices rather than have his wife or myself describe each thing to him. He was appreciative and upon me dashing out our back service entrance to the parking garage and asking the valet, he complacently agreed to my request of checking the car’s console to fetch the glasses.
Thirty seconds later, they were in the hand of the young man who made a quick dash back to where I was standing in the garage. The valet was also wearing a look of somewhat disbelief as he handed the wire framed specs to me and I said, “what’s that look for? What’s Up? “ He said, “man you wouldn’t believe it. I’ve never before seen such a security force for an arriving customer at a restaurant like what I witnessed just a few minutes ago.”
His comment was in reference to the restaurant that is adjacent to the one where I work as we share the same building and the professional crew of valets.
So my response was, “Why?, what’s going on?”
He said, “supposedly Jim Carrey and Jennifer Lawrence just walked in next door to eat. There were chamfered SUV’s with a few other vehicles.” He motioned over to a couple of backed in black Chevy Tahoes with drivers sitting patiently alone in the front seat. The valet said, “ their standing by in case the actors get bombarded while inside and need to make a mad dash to avoid any scene of chaos.”
I thought to myself, ‘cool‘. I understand why Jennifer Lawrence would be here as she’s something of a fixture in Atlanta from the frequent filming of her popular young adult series. I wasn’t sure about Carrey though. What could he be up to?
Well for whatever the reason of their presence, it was exciting that the two were just on the other side of the wall from where myself and team of coworkers were busy working that Saturday night. Not wanting to cause a stir with any of my coworkers or guests, I simply kept that bit of information to myself until the very end of the night at which point, I emphatically explained to a few people what I had learned from my brief encounter earlier. They of course seemed utterly surprised. The subject prompted the response from a few of my friendly coworkers about the appearance of the retired Nba superstar Charles Barkley, who came into our location several nights previously with an entourage of five or six people.
Simply having stored both of these incidents in the backlog of my memory since their occurrences, I was elated to discover this morning some enlightening information from glancing at the twitter feed from a Hollywood film critic whom I follow. His tweet mentioned that filming had recently begun in Atlanta for Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels on the highly speculated sequel to the 1994 comedic hit Dumb and Dumber. This brought a moment of delight as this could certainly be a movie to get excited about.
The idea for a sequel has apparently been in talks for several years with the script being written by the same comedic mastermind Farley Brothers who created the original. It was said that the preliminary script was picked up by Warner Brothers about one year ago but then subsequentally dropped after the Steve Carrel/Buschemi comedy, 'Incredible Burt Wonderstone', that included Jim Carrey, failed to produce a box office profit. 'Burt Wonderstone' was the first appearance for Carrey in several years and some saw it as a minor part for making his way back into more leading roles in the future. The movie though was a loss with a box office gross of 22 on a budget of $30 million which seemed to convince Warner Brothers not to pursue what they perceived as another comedic risk. Thus they dropped the rights to the Dumb and Dumber sequel in June.
But to the rescue of those viewers hoping to see this ridiculous duo’s return to the screen, Red Granite Production recently agreed to finance the movie and all seems a go.
The notable actress, Laurie Holden known for her role in the locally Atlanta filmed, sci-fi show, 'The Walking Dead' has reportedly accepted a major part. Interestingly, her and Carrey played along side one another in the 2001 film, 'The Majestic'. Come to think of it her and Jennifer Lawrence do resemble one another a bit. Likely it was her who was partaking in the dinner with Carrey a few nights ago not Ms. Lawrence. Nevertheless, filming has apparently begun and with 'Newsroom' having nearly capped off it’s latest season, the timing seems right to get the crew of main characters together for the start of production.
According to slashfilms.com, the sequel’s plot involves Carrey’s part of Lloyd succumbing to a fatal illness which cajoles him to seek out the son whom he conceived many years before in hopes of convincing the teenager of doing a kidney transplant to save his estranged father. Undoubtedly, Jeff Daniels is alongside as the equally misguided but sometimes more clairvoyant of the absurd duo of characters as we saw in the original. Laurie Holder is said to be assigned the part of the doctor's wife. No word yet on who might play the unexpecting child. We can only hope that Ms. Holder’s role can come close to the relief of Mary Swanson’s dismayed acceptance in the original to go along with these fools as she seeks to recover the lost trove of cash which fortunately for her sake had all been made good by hundreds of paper IOUs.
The outrageous, idiotic humor made hilariously famous by Jim Carrey years ago may reemerge from the cinematic vault to provide those of us who still recite spontaneous quotes from the original something to bring us back to the years of such popular gems as, “Austria, Well then Good Day Mate!, or “Aspen.?, um California” and “It’s Ok I’m a Limo Driver“… splat!
Stay tuned to this site for updates.