The Mask

1994 was a very good year for Jim Carrey. Ace Ventura,The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber were all released within the span of eleven months and established him as a comedic force to be reckoned with. Although it might be argued that the other two films have had more resonance, The Mask was the most critically and commercially successful at the time.

Which is why it's pretty crazy to consider that it was almost a completely different movie altogether. Based on a hyper-violent splatterpunk comic of the same name, New Line Cinema initially saw The Mask as a successor to their A Nightmare on Elm Street series. They even tapped Nightmare 3 director Chuck Russell to helm it.

Like the title character, however, it eventually transformed into something else entirely. So join us as we investigate the property's comic book origins, its journey to the big screen, and why this is maybe one occasion where diverging this dramatically from the source material was a good decision.

Topics include: some of the more unusual approaches to the film before they settled on an overtly comedic tone, why Carrey was still a risky proposition at this point, who else they considered for the role of Stanley, the one scene the studio really wanted them to cut, key differences between the film and the original comic mini-series, some of the surprising elements that carry over, the planned sequel that Carrey bailed on, and much more!

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