Carrey Plays The Grinch

Jim Carrey looks set to play The Grinch in a film version of Doctor Seuss's story, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. An earlier report had said that Fox was close to signing a deal for Grinch and had lined up Jack Nicholson to star. Instead, Universal has agreed to pay Audrey Geisel, the widow of Theodor ("Dr. Seuss") Geisel, $9 million for the movie rights along with an "unprecedented" merchandising and soundtrack deal. The $9 million includes the rights to another Seuss story, Oh, The Places You'll Go. Grinch story will be "live-action, augmented by special effects to create a very unique world," where even the human characters "will look different." The director will be Ron Howard, who seems to have been a Grinch fan of long standing. He apparently said, "The Grinch is a great character. He's a great sort of anti-hero who winds up growing and doing the right thing." Hope that hasn't spoilt the end for you. It looks set for a release date of Christmas 2000. The only previous version of the story was an animated cartoon, narrated by Boris Karloff.