Earlier this year, there was a flurry of news about Ace Ventura 3. Word was that Morgan Creek Productions were just waiting for Jim Carrey to sign off on the project to begin pre-production. Since then, though, we’ve heard nothing. That may be down to the unexpected success of Sonic the Hedgehog, which has led to talk of sequels and spinoffs, and, of course, COVID-19, which threw a million monkey wrenches into the global movie machinery. But once again, there’s some light on the horizon.
Famed leaker Daniel Richtman has said that a new Ace Ventura movie is still in development, though didn’t provide any further details. Carrey may have even hinted at this in a recent SNL sketch as while playing Joe Biden he brought back Ace’s “Loser!” catchphrase to wild applause. Does he know something we don’t?
Perhaps, but what might a modern Ace Ventura look like? Well, obviously Ace is going to be older, but somehow I doubt he’s going to be any wiser. My bet is that a sequel a quarter-century on from When Nature Calls would find him trying to get his investigatory mojo back. After all, the world has changed a lot in that time and it’d be fun to see how folks react to him coming out of retirement for one last case.
A big fly in the ointment, though, might be that the original Ace Ventura: Pet Detective hasn’t aged well. There’s a mean streak of trans and homophobia running through the film, with the sequence where Ace realizes he’s kissed a man, pukes in disgust, burns his clothes and cries in the shower being particularly gross. Then again, the character’s passion for animal rights is probably more relatable in the 2020s than it would have been in the 1990s, so at least he’s got that to fall back on.
Whatever the case, Jim Carrey absolutely needs to be involved. They tried doing an Ace Ventura movie without him and, uh, let’s just say there’s a reason you haven’t heard of it. Here’s hoping Richtman is right on this one and we hear some firm news soon.
