Almighty ballooning?

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by: Jonathan Frey Oct. 10, 2006

Carell

EVAN ALMIGHTY, the Steve Carell-starring sequel to Jim Carrey's original, looks poised to take the uneasy honor of the most expensive comedy ever made and, although the film started out with a reported budget of a not-exactly-Jean Valjean-esque 140 million dollars, that's not necessarily the kind of number one spot Universal was striving for it to reach. Due to unexpected costs related not only visual effects and set construction (you know, those huge f*cking arks, the building of which was, funnily enough, hampered by bad weather) but also to the apparently unforeseeable difficulties of filming literally hundreds of animals in a controlled environment, the movie is currently at an alleged 160 mil, and will likely top off at a cool 175. The percentage of the budget overun expected is high even by Hollywood standards but producers on EVAN remain optimistic because it is, after all, a sequel to a hugely successful movie and it's a "spectacle fantasy" on top of being a comedy. The same can be said about the two current record-holders for costliest comedy, MEN IN BLACK and WILD WILD WEST (said to have cost about $140 million and $170 million, respectively). I'm sure fingers are crossed for a BLACK-like performance because, If EVAN ALMIGHTY turns out more like the latter when the box office receipts start coming in, then yikes. I'd like to see this thing avoid a crash-and-burn because, despite an inexplicably deep hatred for the first movie in this series (which costed half the amount EVAN is likely to), I'm a big fan of Carell. The movie is scheduled for a June 22nd, 2007 release.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Extra Tidbit: After marketing is said and done, the total budget of EVAN ALMIGHTY is projected to be about $250 million.

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Servo
10:24AM on 10/11/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
This movie's going to tank. Sad, too. Bruce Almighty is one of my favorite Jim Carrey movies. I think they're depending too much on Carrel's career, which is still in its' very early stage of stardom. Damn...if Kong and Superman couldn't make its money back...
This movie's going to tank. Sad, too. Bruce Almighty is one of my favorite Jim Carrey movies. I think they're depending too much on Carrel's career, which is still in its' very early stage of stardom. Damn...if Kong and Superman couldn't make its money back...
 
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Mojave
5:24PM on 10/10/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Benefit of the doubt
Normally, I wouldn't care about something that seems so wrong headedly expensive, not to mention a sequel, that doesn't have the star of the original in it...but, it's not a horrible premise, Steve Carell can and will make anything funny, the rest of the cast is good, and judging by Shadyac's job on the other one, this will at least be a forum for the performers. He left in the funniest, and le...
Normally, I wouldn't care about something that seems so wrong headedly expensive, not to mention a sequel, that doesn't have the star of the original in it...but, it's not a horrible premise, Steve Carell can and will make anything funny, the rest of the cast is good, and judging by Shadyac's job on the other one, this will at least be a forum for the performers. He left in the funniest, and least neccesary plot-wise, scene from the last movie, which happens to be Carell's. I just worry about Carell if this tanks too hard, he could be kind of fucked. He always has The Office, and could go back to the Daily Show i'm sure, but movie-wise it'd be difficult, and I think he's not only a really great comedy actor, he's just a plain great actor.
 
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jolanar
5:16PM on 10/10/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
With a budget like that there is no way this film can be succesful.
With a budget like that there is no way this film can be succesful.
 
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zagorakis
12:24PM on 10/10/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
don't you go dissing the office! It's one of the only funny comedies on tv and steve carell is a big reason why. And for the record, carell did make me bust a gut in the 40 year old virgin and does it almost every week on the office. Oh yeah, bruce almight was just as bad the second time as it was the first.
don't you go dissing the office! It's one of the only funny comedies on tv and steve carell is a big reason why. And for the record, carell did make me bust a gut in the 40 year old virgin and does it almost every week on the office. Oh yeah, bruce almight was just as bad the second time as it was the first.
 
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bigd23
9:58AM on 10/10/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Ditto to what anarchristboy33 just wrote! 100% in agreement!
Ditto to what anarchristboy33 just wrote! 100% in agreement!
 
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anarchistboy33
9:55AM on 10/10/2006 Add as a friend | MFC profile
Extra! Extra! 40-year old nerd who works in an office making a big paycheck to act uncomfortable and unliked in a movie, World Shocked!
For someone to say they hated Bruce Almighty but are looking forward to the sequel makes no sense. I didn't laugh much when I saw Bruce Almighty in theaters, but the second time, I was rolling on the floor, it was so good. something just clicked the second time. Which means I have absolutely no hope for a sequel with the 2nd-rate character who suddenly got famous on a boring show and true to li...
For someone to say they hated Bruce Almighty but are looking forward to the sequel makes no sense. I didn't laugh much when I saw Bruce Almighty in theaters, but the second time, I was rolling on the floor, it was so good. something just clicked the second time. Which means I have absolutely no hope for a sequel with the 2nd-rate character who suddenly got famous on a boring show and true to life movie, so they budget him in the most expensive comedy ever, oh this will so go Wild Wild West on us. And I'll love it, Carrell isn't funny, he makes being uncomfortable funny sometimes, but he's not a laugh machine, who in any movie will make you bust a gut, I mean the guy took a role in Sleepover, I don't think that's talent myself, but hey nerds everywhere like him, so we'll see him all over until he burns out with a stink. On a side note, with this movie's budget, how in the hell did the studio with Used Guys in production shut them down, I mean a comedy with Ben Stiller and Jim Carrey, can you say guaranteed 100 million gross at least. Idiots