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Seasoned actor Jim Carrey has expressed willingness to return to his iconic role in The Mask, over three decades after the film was released and instantly gained a cult following. Mr Carrey said he did not want to revisit the character for monetary gains but if the right script under the right conditions came to him, he would be open to donning the green-coloured prosthetic for the goofy clown. The original movie featuring Cameron Diaz alongside Mr Carrey grossed $351.5 million worldwide and catapulted both actors into superstardom
“Oh gosh, you know, it has to be the right idea. If somebody had the right idea, I guess. It’s not really about the money. I joke about the money, but I never know,” Mr Carrey told comicbook.com.
“You can’t be definite about these things. I said I’d like to retire, but I think I was talking more about power-resting. Because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people you really enjoyed working with and stuff, it just – things tend to change,” he added.
Talks around a potential sequel have routinely surfaced in the last 20 years. In fact, an attempt was made to develop the sequel called Son of the Mask. The movie was released in 2005 with Mr Carrey and starred Jamie Kennedy. However, it failed to capture the spirit of the original and bombed at the box office. It scored six per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed $59.9 million against a budget of $84 million.
The film’s critical and commercial failure ensured that The Mask IP could not be revived without Mr Carrey coming on board. However, with Hollywood taking the nostalgia train in recent years to develop sequels to classics (Indiana Jones, Terminator, Top Gun), a return for The Mask sequel cannot be ruled out.
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Carrey returns to acting
Mr Carrey, who announced his retirement from acting in 2022, returns to the big screens next week with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 where he reprises his role as antagonist with the comically large moustache, Dr Robotnik.
Quizzed about why he had returned to action despite pledging to step back, The Truman Show star came up with an amusing reply.
“First of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch,” he said. The second, he continued, was, “I bought a lot of stuff, and I need the money, frankly.”
Apart from Sonic, Mr Carrey is slated to feature in director David Robert Mitchell’s upcoming offering, Evergreen Pines and the Fading Summer.
