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Jim Carrey To Star In New Showtime Series From 'Eternal Sunshine' Director
Jim Carrey. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Harper's BAZAAR)
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Jim Carrey, of recent red-carpet-shenanigan-fame, is coming to television. Showtime has signed a straight-to-series order for Kidding, a ten-episode comedy from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry and I'm Dying Up Here co-executive producer Dave Holstein. This will be Carrey's first starring television role since his early-career turn on In Living Color, the early 90s sketch show from the Wayans brothers.
The show stars Carrey as a man named Jeff who runs a massive kids media empire as the figure Mr. Pickles. He guides the emotional lives of millions of children and their parents, but when his own family begins to fall apart, he finds few anchors of his own to hold on to. Showtime CEO David Nevins describes the role as "Humpty Dumpty after the fall," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This series order continues the network's relationship with Carrey, who is already serving as an executive producer on I'm Dying Up Here alongside Holstein; Showtime just renewed the show for a second season.
For those who pay an inordinate amount of attention to the television development cycle, you may notice some similarities between this show and a pilot Charlie Kaufman made back in 2013. Kaufman, who wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, had written a half-hour comedy about a Bill Nye-type science show host who could "explain how and why a nuclear reactor works but is otherwise clueless about life," according to the Hollywood Reporter. The show's protagonist encountered similar existential threats when he was replaced by a younger host.
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When was the last time Kaufman and Gondry collaborated creatively? Do they speak or trade notes on projects? Are we all inching closer towards acknowledging no new ideas exist? Or perhaps, as Carrey said on the red carpet, none of it matters.
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