Sequel on the way - after 20 years

Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are to reunite for a Dumb And Dumber sequel 20 years after the original.

Shooting on the new movie is due to start in August, with a release scheduled for next year.

Last week it was announced that the film – officially titled Dumb And Dumber To – had been dropped by Warner Bros studios, which owned the rights. However that freed it to be picked up by Red Granite and Universal.

It is not the first spin-off from the 1994 hit. A prequel, Dumb and Dumberer, was made in 2003 but flopped without the involvement of the original stars or creators Bobby and Peter Farrelly.

Speaking on the Nerdist podcast,Peter Farrelly said: ‘We took two years to work on this script. We didn’t want to do it unless it was as good as the first one; we didn’t want to tarnish the first one.

‘In fact, when you see Dumb and Dumber 2, Dumb and Dumber 1 is better because you learn things that you knew in Dumb and Dumber 1 but you hadn’t put together.’

He added that an announcement for the sequel had been a long time coming because of negotiations with Warner Bros, and added: ‘As you know, we didn’t do Dumb and Dumberer, that was done by the studio. And that’s one reason why they didn’t want to do this, because they did that [and it didn’t work].’

Farrelly, who will also direct the sequel with his brother, confirmed that Carrey and Daniels – and even the character of a blind child they sold a headless bird to in the original – will return.

He said: ‘We’re going to hopefully be shooting by August in Atlanta. It takes place in Rhode Island, but you shoot in Atlanta because it’s cheap. We pick up today and explain what they’ve been doing for the last 18 years very quickly, and then they get off to the races and then it takes off.’

The brothers are also offering one fan the chance to be in the movie, if they send a short tribute video via Twitter’s Vine service.

‘Give us a Vine with the most entertaining Dumb and Dumber reference and the winner gets to be in Dumb and Dumber To,’ he said. ‘And they get a line.’

The Farrellys most recently directed The Three Stooges.

Published: 19 Jun 2013