Carrey and Gyllenhaal burst out singing

Posted on March 3, 2009
Filed Under Actors, Adaptation, Awards, News, Remake

For those of you watching this years Academy Awards, you may remember Hugh Jackman’s tribute to the musical? The little musical piece he did with Beyonce Knowles? He declared the movie musical is back. Apparently he was right. Variety reports that New Line Cinema is playing ball with Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal on “Damn Yankees,” attaching both actors to star in a contemporized film transfer of the classic musical.

“Damn Yankees,” which bowed on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, focuses on Joe Boyd, a happily married middle-aged man whose devotion to a hapless pro baseball team prompts him to make a Faustian bargain with the devil to help the team. He’s transformed into slugger Joe Hardy, in exchange for Boyd’s soul. Boyd can break the deal, but the deadline occurs during the World Series. For good measure, the devil engages Lola, a gorgeous lost soul, to seduce the slugger and seal his fate.

The plan is for Carrey to play the devil, and Gyllenhaal to play Boyd. It’s the first musical for each.

My personal standpoint is that nothing good ever comes out of a movie musical. The whole concept rubs me the wrong way and hopefully this is not the start of some “Hollywood trend”… If you wanna hear actors sing – go see a musical. If you want to see actors act (without suddenly bursting out singing) you go to the movies. Lets not complicate things.

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