Looking back on Jim Carrey's career, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was arguably the movie that kicked off his Hollywood career, previously being best known for his performances on the sketch comedy TV series In Living Color. Carrey's time as the spastic animal investigator gave moviegoers their first real taste of his unique physical comedy, and the actor reprised the role just a year later Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, with both movies being commercial successes. Now more than two decades later, an Ace Ventura follow-up is in the works. Well...alrighty then!
Two years after Morgan Creek Productions expressed interest in rebooting, remaking and relaunching Ace Ventura and other movie properties it has acquired, Deadline is reporting that the company moving closer to getting this new take off the ground. While some of the movies that Morgan Creek intends on remaking will be television adaptations (like what the company has done with The Exorcist), the new Ace Ventura movie will be a "mainstream theatrical production relaunch." However, rather than being a straight remake or reboot of the Jim Carrey-led original, Morgan Creek founder James G. Robinson says that this will be a new movie "in the spirit of the original" so as not to undercut what came before. Some of the other movie properties Morgan Creek is planning to revitalize on the big and/or small screens include Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League and Nightbreed.
It's also worth noting that rather than go the full reboot route, Morgan Creek is currently planning on having the new Ace Ventura movie maintain some ties with the original movies, serving a relaunching sequel of sorts, similar to how the upcoming Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is tied to its 1995 predecessor. The current concept in consideration is a "baton-handing," with a long-lost son or daughter of Ace's showing up at his door and taking over the family profession. The premise of Ace Ventura's son going on his own animal-filled adventure was previously explored in the TV movie Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective, though that "threequel" was meet with mostly negative reviews.
If the "baton-handing" idea for this theatrical Ace Ventura movie moves forward, James Robinson says that Morgan Creek would welcome Jim Carrey back to reprise the memorable role, which is practically a given. If you're going to make a new Ace Ventura movie and not have it be unconnected to its predecessors, then it's absolutely necessary to bring in Jim Carrey rather than hire another actor in the role.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news on how the new Ace Ventura movie is coming along, and in the meantime, you can look through our 2017 movie premiere guide and 2018 premiere guide to see what's coming to theaters sooner. For all the Jim Carrey fans out there, you can see him next month in the Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, and next year, he'll star in the Showtime series Kidding.
