Jim Carrey is everywhere….at least this week. Last weekend he hosted a surprisingly not completely awful episode of “Saturday Night Live” (he does mean impressions of Billie Holiday and Alan Thicke) and his stint on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” aired a few days ago as well. And while we’re not quite sure what he’s out there pimping right now (“I Love You Phillip Morris” after agonizing distribution headaches seems to have died on arrival), he does have a movie coming out this summer.
“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” stars an intriguing cast including Carrey, Carla Gugino, Philip Baker Hall, Ophelia Lovibond, David Krumholtz, Clark Gregg, James Tupper, Andrew Stewart-Jones and Angela Lansbury with “Mean Girls” director Mark Waters behind the camera utilizing a script is co-written by Nicholas Stoller (”Get Him to the Greek,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) and scribes Sean Anders and John Morris (“Sex Drive,” “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “She’s Out of My League”). So perhaps this might be a cut above the usual family fare?
Based on Richard and Florence Atwater’s book, the film follows Carrey as a high-powered businessman who inherits six penguins, and as you might expect, they complicate his life but not before he learns about family and friendship. Hall will play an investor who backs Mr. Popper’s various schemes, with Lovibond playing the titular character’s personal assistant. Krumholtz plays a neighbor with a grudge who seeks to profit from the fact that Popper is illegally keeping animals in his New York apartment, Tupper plays the green-friendly obsessed boyfriend of Gugino (Carrey’s ex-wife in the film), Gregg is a “no-nonsense” employee from the New York Zoo and Jones plays Mr. Popper’s doorman who threatens to tell the building’s management about his new friends. And in the midst of all this, Popper will be trying to buy a local tavern owned by Lansbury.
We now have our first look at the film and it’s Carrey and some penguins — this thing sells itself. Regarding his animal co-stars, “I found them to be completely unprofessional,” Carrey joked, “but they’re on-screen gold, so what can you do?” The film will help parents find something for their bored kids to do when it opens on August 12th.
