Christopher Nolan Was Working on a Howard Hughes Biopic With Jim Carrey
Here’s a bit of interesting movie trivia that I wasn’t aware of until just recently. At one point in his career, director Christopher Nolan was developing a Howard Hughes biopic and he wanted Jim Carrey to take on the lead role. Just that bit of information alone makes my imagination start popping off wondering what that would have looked like.
While Nolan was developing the film, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio jumped ahead and beat him to the punch and made The Aviator, which obviously caused Nolan to stop developing the project. The filmmaker talked about the project back in 2014, saying it’s the best script he’s ever written:
"I was definitely like, 'Fuck!' I think it's the best script I've ever written, and I had a really wonderful experience writing it. Yeah, it was a frustrating experience that the other movie got going. Will I revisit it? I have no idea. I really don't think about what I'm going to do next until I'm completely finished, and for the next couple of weeks I'm still all about 'Interstellar.' I wouldn't necessarily rule it out, but I wrote it a long time ago."
Jim Carrey was actually attached to the project while Nolan was developing it, and when talking about working with him on that, the director said in another interview:
"Well, it's not cursed. It's just never happened. Cursed is when you do it and it fails miserably, and somebody else does it and it fails miserably. No one has ever gone ahead with a Howard Hughes biopic. I don't know why it has a reputation as being cursed, and I don't intend to find out. I think casting may have had something to do with it, and I think I've found the one guy, in the person of Jim Carrey, who can actually do what's required by the part. It's a monumental part to try to pull off, no question. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. I hope.”
In another interview with the website Showbizmonkeys, Nolan offered more insight on the Howard Hughes project, and talked about how much Carrey was collaborating with him on the movie. When asked about that, he said:
“Oh, quite a lot. Just in terms of my imagination of knowing who is going to play the part. It is different sitting down to write, and sitting down to write already knowing who is going to play the part. We have met several times to discuss the specifics of the direction we were going in and Jim has some fantastic ideas which are close to my ideas. We are having quite a bit of fun.”
Nolan went on to talk about Carrey's ability as an actor to take on this role, saying:
“He is just perfect. He was born to play him. He just really is. This film has been discussed to be made for years in various forms but never has. The casting is one of the things behind that. When you have that and you hear Jim's take on the characterization and you look at his extraordinary gift for channeling individuals like in his portrayal of Andy Kaufman, you can see that Jim Carrey is a very unique talent. What I need is an individual who can play all the unique aspects of the character of Howard Hughes.”
It’s a shame that this movie never happened. While I liked what Scorsese and DiCaprio did with Howard Hughes in The Aviator, I’m actually a lot more interested in what Nolan and Carrey would have done with their film. It’s a shame that we’ll never get to see their vision of Hughes’ story told. If Nolan does decide to make the movie one day, it will have to be without Carrey because he’s too old to take on the role now. I think Carrey would have been awesome in the role.
I kind of wish that Nolan wouldn’t have abandoned this project. I would’ve been fine with two Howard Hughes films. Hughes was such a fascinating individual and seeing his story told by two different visionary directors would have been fascinating to see.
Via: /Film