Wouldn’t it be awesome to see Jim Carrey taking on a different kind of role within the realm of Bruce Almighty, the comedy movie where a mere mortal got to assume the powers of God? Well, it almost happened. Almost.
RELATED: Batman Forever: Jim Carrey’s Riddler Is Better Than You Remember
Bruce Almighty (2003)
Bruce Almighty told the story of a puff-piece reporter Bruce Nolan, questioning everything, including his life. Then, suddenly, he finds himself with the omnipotence of God. Excellently portrayed by Jim Carrey, along with the amazing casting of Morgan freeman as the personification of God, the movie was a huge success, despite having the possibility of upsetting many people. The film, while a comedy, was highly respectful and still followed the themes of responsibility with great power and doing goodwill unto humanity while hilariously portraying the ultimate wish-fulfilment scenario.
The night the film opened worldwide in cinemas, the co-writers of the script, Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe, ran into the producer, Michael Bostick. There, they pitched a hellish sequel Idea for a follow-up Bruce Almighty movie.
Unmade Sequel
The follow-up idea they pitched was that Bruce relinquishes his Godly powers to gain the powers of Satan, and of course, the title would be Brucifer. What is the motivation behind turning toward evil? Bruce’s wife, Grace Nolan (played by Jennifer Aniston) would have to die. “You tend to lose faith when the world seems unfair, and that’s what got him. It came from a serious place, but we were going to write it amicably. We certainly didn’t want to depress people,” Koren Shared during a Zoom call interview with SYFY WIRE, alongside his co-writer, O’Keefe.
“Jim’s credit,” Koren continued, “He understood that we were going to make a big comedy and thought everybody would connect with it,” Koren said. Carrey even had his ideas for the resurrection of Grace with his new Satanic powers, and Karen shared a memory of Carrey saying that she should, at first, come back as a rotting corpse, and that she could return to being beautiful again throughout the movie. Although a little dark for some people’s tastes, the co-writers and Carrey loved the idea.
O’Keefe went on to explain that the Trials of Job mildly inspired the idea for the Bruce Almighty sequel and the way that people tend to question everything when they fall into trouble, and Bruce thinks he has to find a different way to solve the problems he is now facing. They had also initially planned for either Carrey himself or Morgan Freeman to play Beelzebub. A little play of twisted irony on “as above, so below”.
RELATED: Ace Ventura 3: Why Jim Carrey Needs This Sequel to Happen
Unlikely Sequel
The co-writers brought the idea to Universal Pictures in 2010, but the idea didn’t take them. Unfortunately, by this time, they had already made their pseudo-sequel with Evan Almighty (2007) starring Steve Carell, which was a massive commercial failure for them. Koren mentioned to SYFY WIRE during their Zoom interview that Universal Pictures didn’t take to it despite both Jim Carrey and his manager liking the idea. They seemed wary of taking on another “giant movie” after the failure of the last one, and it just didn’t work out for them.
Even though Universal Pictures wasn’t keen on the idea, the co-writers are open to bringing their vision to life differently, so there is still a possibility. However, relatively small that we might see this legendary idea come to life one day.
RELATED: The Mask 2: Jim Carrey Needs to Return for a Sequel
What do you think of this idea for a Bruce Almighty movie sequel?
Bruce Almighty Almost Became Satan In An Unmade Sequel Written by Megan Oosthuizen for Fortress of Solitude
