When it comes to making sequels, Hollywood is pretty good at pumping them out within five years of the original - but some take a tad bit longer to get made. Dumb and Dumber To falls into the latter category. The film is arriving in theaters on Friday nearly a full 20 years after the first film came out in 1994. In cases like this, where the original stars and filmmakers are involved, one if forced to wonder how the idea of doing a sequel came up in the first place. Well, it turns out you can thank the fact that Dumb and Dumber plays regularly on cable television.
The question of where Dumb and Dumber To found its footing was recently asked by a fan during a Reddit AMA with directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, and the filmmakers provided an interesting answer. Apparently the story goes all the way back to circa 2009, when Jim Carrey found himself in front of a television set while traveling. Wrote the Peter Farrelly,
"Jim Carrey was in a hotel room about 5 years ago, and he watched DUMB & DUMBER on television, and immediately realized he wanted to do another one. When it ended, he called me, and we immediately dove into it."
While that may have been the inception of the project, the five year gap between then and now is a perfect illustration of the fact that the sequel had a rocky road ahead of it to production. It wasn't until late 2011 - when the Farrellys were finishing work on The Three Stooges - that the two directors began to get serious about making the Dumb and Dumber sequel... and then they hit all kinds of behind the scenes problems. Due to perceived lack of enthusiasm on the part of Warner Bros. and New Line, Jim Carrey publically declared that he was walking away from the project in summer 2012 - and he was followed by Jeff Daniels. It was on again-off again for the next year, and then Warner Bros. cut ties completely - but that just led Universal to come in and scoop up the movie for development, production, and distribution. And now it's almost here!
Set 20 years after the original, Dumb and Dumber To once again finds Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) on a cross-country adventure - only this time there are life-threatening stakes. Harry is in need of a kidney transplant, and the only person who can help him is the daughter he never knew he had with Fraida Felcher (Kathleen Turner). Unfortunately, their journey leads them to cross paths with his daughter's adopted mother (Laurie Holden) and her lover (Rob Riggle), who plan to use Harry and Lloyd in their own nefarious plot. Look for it in theaters this weekend.
