Exploring The Mask

[Music] in 1982 writer artist Mike Richardson created the concept for a comic character he called the mask in 1986 he started Dark Horse Comics a publisher focused on the rights of comics creators Richardson worked with writer artist mark badger for Marvel and published the mask in issue 10 of Dark Horse presents not liking the direction badger was going with the character he ended the series and work to get it back to his original idea Richardson called the mask a combination of Tex Avery and The Terminator he worked with artist Chris Warner and in 1989 the definitive mask was born in Dark Horse's anthology series mayhem the character proved so popular after the mayhem series ended it was spun off into its own comic series the mask in 1991 the mask revolved around a shiny neurotic guy named stanley ipkiss after acquiring a jade mask from an antique store he discovers if he wears it it amplifies all of his repressed emotions and makes him a nigh invulnerable killing machine the comic had a heavy emphasis on dark comedy and was also brutally violent the mask enables Stan Lee to get revenge on anyone who's wronged him or anyone who he perceived as a threat in 1989 Tim Burton's Batman goes on to be the highest domestic grossing film of the year and the second highest-grossing film worldwide movie studio started investigating the viability of adapting other comics to film Mike Richardson and Todd Moyer the VP of Dark Horse approached New Line Cinema with the proposition of making a movie out of the mask Newland was intrigued with the indict Merrin Elm Street series losing steam they were looking for a new horror icon they could turn into a franchise they brought in director Chuck Russell who recently did the remake of the blob as well as the best received of The Nightmare on Elm Street series a Nightmare on Elm Street 3 dream warriors he liked the idea but thought the property would work better as a comedy new line insisted on it being a horror film so Russell turned the job down Newland had several scripts written all with a heavy emphasis on horror most of the scripts were about a guy putting on the mask and then going on a murderous rampage although one of the scripts was about a mask maker who removed the faces of cadavers and put them on teenagers which turned them into zombies new line wasn't happy with any of the scripts so they returned to Russell and asked him more about his idea his concept would not an easy sell instead of a horror film he wanted to make essentially a live-action cartoon comedy with elements of romance also he wanted to do this with an almost entirely unknown cast and technology that didn't exist yet since the comic-book style was heavily influenced by Tex Avery Russell want to incorporate as much of that as possible into the film Russell's version also took influence from the Nutty Professor the studio wasn't completely sold on the idea but were intrigued enough so they move forward Russell hired mark herb to write the screenplay they took some ideas from the comics but overall it was quite different a few years earlier Russell had seen the stand-up act of comedian Jim Carrey he loved his style and knew that one day he'd had the perfect movie to put him in at the time Carrey was relatively unknown most folks knew him as the white guy from In Living Color while working on the screenplay Russell told werb to write the character of stanley ipkiss with Jim Carrey in mind Russell approached Carrie with the screenplay and he loved it he said I feel like this was written for me because it was since Carrie was already like a living cartoon he knew he was the only one who could bring the character to life getting the leading lady on the other hand was more difficult than he imagined while Carrie was relatively unknown he at least had a few movies under his belt like once bitten and earth girls are easy Russell wanted a complete unknown for the love interest Tina the character was written as a voluptuous knockout blonde so they interviewed numerous models the studio's scoffed at the idea of casting an unknown casting director fern champion put out a call looking for nothing but fresh new faces Jeri Ryan Paige French Melissa and more Kelly Rutherford and tons more but none of them were right they even started interviewing Playboy Playmates like India Allen Anna Nicole Smith seemed like a perfect match but the casting director just wasn't feeling it meanwhile the elite modeling agency was in the same building where they were doing their casting one day one of the agents was passing through the office and the casting director asked if they had someone anyone at all they could audition the agent said they had one girl who wasn't really interested in acting but they'd send her down anyway that girl was Cameron Diaz she was 19 at the time and told them she didn't know what she was doing there but agreed to read some lines with them they all loved her they asked if she'd be interested in acting and she told them not really she said I'm going to Paris tomorrow so I'm good they were stunned no one had ever turned them down for a role before Diaz went to Paris and the auditions continued after weeks of interviews and no decent prospects Russell suggested they try to contact Diaz again they imagined a flyer back to the US and once more were floored by her natural charisma and stunning good looks at this point she was starting to warm up to the idea when Russell presented her to the studio is his top choice for the role they said no an unknown model with no prior acting experience as the leading lady in a tentpole film no way they filmed some test screenings showing the chemistry between Carey and Diaz but the studio still said no finally Russell went to the producers and insisted on Diaz he put his job on the line saying he wouldn't do the movie without her and that they thanked him later they gave in and let him hire her for the film the next biggest role they need to fill was Milo the dog Milo didn't exist in the comics he was created for the film actor comedian WC Fields famously said never work with animals or children the studio thought Russell was nuts for him wanting to have a dog holding such an intricate part in the film they saw numerous animal trainers until finally agreeing on the perfect Milo a Jack Russell Terrier named Max they hired stand-up comedian actor Richard Jeni to play the friend Charlie Amy as back to play the reporter Peggy and Peter Green to play the villain Dorian at the time computer animation wasn't being used for comedy so they were breaking new ground Russell worked with Industrial Light & Magic conveying to them the look he wanted half of the visual effects he didn't want to blend 2d animation with live-action like Who Framed Roger Rabbit he wanted fully 3d animation interacting with live-action many things were lifted directly from Tex Avery and he knew they could only be done with computer animation with the cast and the visual effects lined up they started the months-long shoot it was a huge gamble for new line this was an 18 million dollar film the most expensive one they've ever produced with an unknown leading man an unknown leading woman with no acting experience visual effects that had never been done before and it was being shot to mimic the style of a 1940's film noir with cartoon elements this was the first movie to use new lines new logo the scuba divers discovering the masks were filmed in a tank they had on loan from Baywatch the bank in the film was located on Spring Street in downtown LA it was an old-style bank that had been closed for years aside from having to clean it up they didn't have to change much in the interior Russell called it location gold the garage was the same building used as Ghostbusters headquarters when Carrie transforms into the mask Russell want to be able to see all of his facial expressions so rather than having him wearing an actual mask they created a series of 17 latex parts laid strategically over the muscles in his face so it would look like a mask but his expressions would still shine through they then gave him a giant set of oversized teeth it took four hours to apply the mask when Carrie was wearing the mask Russell wanted him to be overly expressive with his acting like silent movie stars Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin Russell want the laws of reality to go right out the window whenever he puts on the mask Stanley becomes a cartoon and anyone or anything he interacts with does as well this made the studio nervous they were seeing the dailies without the visuals and didn't understand how this was gonna work the scene where Stanley gets revenge on the guys at the garage was taken directly from the comics they lightened it up to be a little more humorous but still were worried it might get them in our rating and have to be cut for the dance sequence Carrie and Diaz both took dancing lessons while some of the dance moves were done by doubles they did the majority themselves for the part of dr. Newman when they found that Ben Stein was interested they rewrote the part specifically for him the scene in landfill park with the mask and tina was inspired by Pepe LePew well the gags in the film were written Carrie was still able to squeeze in some improv originally the mask was supposed to fill Tina's mouth with cigarettes but the prop device they had didn't work Carrie came up with the idea to blow a smoke heart and then snort an arrow through it when the mask is doing the balloon show Carrie and prob pulling a condom out when the police are going through his pants they had them cut off at the knees and the prop guys were handing items up through the bottom the mass method of travel was a tornado which was inspired by the Tasmanian Devil the director wanted to subvert the audience's expectations with the film a big one was with Peggy and Tina in a normal film a character like Peggy would be the good girl a pseudo Lois Lane Tina would be the bad girl the girl the lead would initially go after but would realize she's evil and end up with Peggy Russell never liked Lois Lane so he made it appear Peggy was good but she was the one who ended up backstabbing him he also did things like the mask stopping the bank robbers because he robbed the bank before they did because how fun the movie was Russell tried to keep the feel of the work on set light everyone was working hard but was also having a good time in between takes Cary would do things to make everyone laugh after filming they moved into post ILM created new software to be able to do the things they wanted in the film since Cary was already able to stretch his face that made the job of the artist that much easier they shot an entire opening where leif ericson arrives at the New World to dispose of the mask they set it up so it would match up with the current times edge city which was a digital matte painting they liked it but they felt it slowed the movie down so they cut it from the film there was a scene where Dorian kills Peggy by tossing her into a printing press after screening it they thought it was a little too violent and cut it from the film the end gun fight was way too violent so they had to dial it back to get a pg-13 the studio saw the director's cut and didn't like certain things the scene where Stan Lee's dreaming and Tina starts licking his ear which makes him wake up to Milo they wanted out because they thought it was gross he fought and was able to keep it in the big one was the song and dance number four Cuban pee the producers hated it and wanted it gone a minutes long musical number in the middle of a comedy they insisted it was over long unfunny and dragged the movie down they screened the film protest audiences and all them rated the segment as their favorite part of the movie progressed to do let them keep it in one of the rare instances showing that test audiences aren't always bad the only thing the test audiences didn't like was the original ending Charlie gets the mask which they did not like at all they went back and did a reshoot where Milo gets the mask the studio was still nervous about the film but then something happened February 4th 1994 Ace Ventura pet detective starring Jim Carrey is released and is a major sleeper hit pulling in over a hundred million dollars versus its 15 million dollar budget when the studio started marketing the masks they plastered Carrie's face all over taking full advantage of his recent hit July 29 1994 the mask is released and is one of the biggest hits in the studio's history making over 350 million dollars becoming the ninth highest grossing film of the year audiences love the Cuban Pete segment and it even got radio airplay in December of 1994 Kerry's third film of the year Dumb and Dumber is released it also goes on to be a massive hit making over two hundred and forty seven million dollars versus its seventeen million dollar budget with three back-to-back blockbusters Carrie becomes one of the biggest stars in Hollywood once again showing how irrelevant now to touch the Razzies are they nominated Carrie for worst new star while working on the mask Russell had plans for numerous sequels if it was a hit initially Carrie was interested in doing a sequel but after Ace Ventura when nature calls he discovered he didn't like playing the same character twice so he turned it down Russell thought of perhaps doing a sequel with a female mask but decided that no one could do the mask like Carrie so the sequel idea was scrapped Cameron Diaz ended up enjoying acting more than she expected after the mask she honed her craft in a series of independent films and in 1998 she blew up again in the smash comedy there's something about Mary Russell continued directing although he moved into action films doing the movie eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Scorpion King with the rock son of the mask proved Russell Wright that no one could do the character like Carrie despite having an 84 million dollar budget more than four times the original budget the effects somehow looked worse than the one from over a decade earlier probably a combination of not having any of the creative people from the original involved mixed with trying to do too many effects the movie bombed making only 17 million domestically and 57 million worldwide the mask is an absolute comedy classic it was at the time the second highest grossing comic book film after Batman critics liked it and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects the movie had an animated series which fared much better than son of the mask it ran for three seasons with Rob Paulsen doing the voice of Stan Lee and Frank Welker as the voice of Milo the comic book continued through the 90s but ended in 2000 it came back as a four-issue miniseries in 2014 itty bitty mask the mask is a movie that shouldn't work but it does it goes against its source material which normally is the kiss of death but it does it so well the effects are amazing Diaz is stunning and Kerry's performance could never be topped or duplicated it's a shame with how huge the film was it's hardly talked about now I've seen son of the mask get more attention simply because of how awful it is at this point I'm sure some studio is considering a remake my only hope is if they do they'll try to capture the hard-r of the comics rather than just try to remake the 94 film remaking the original film is just a fruitless endeavor and there's a high possibility they'll end up with just another son of the mask [Music] Oh [Music] [Music]

Channel: GoodBadFlicks

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Keywords: good bad flicks, goodbadflicks, movie, Exploring The Mask, Jim Carrey, Chuck Russell, The Mask, Dark Horse Comics, comic book movies, comic book movie, son of the mask, ilm

Id: qG2teHAFmKI

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2017