'Never worked out': 'Bruce Almighty' writers reveal satan-centered sequel 'Brucifer' starring Jim Carrey
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In 2003, Jim Carrey gave another masterclass in comedy by playing the amazing character of Bruce Nolan in Tom Shadyac’s ‘Bruce Almighty’. The movie primarily focuses on the life of Bruce who complains to god that he is not doing his work properly because his life keeps on getting worse with each passing day. Tired of all the complaints, the God (Morgan Freeman) meets him and offers him to be a God for one week. At first, he enjoys all the powers that he is given, however, things change when all the prayers from people get too much for him to handle. The movie received a lot of love from people and fans hoped for a sequel with Carrey reprising the role of Bruce once again. But it seems, the makers had other ideas and wanted to make a sequel in which Carrey’s character meets Satan.
‘Bruce Almighty’ earned $67.9 million in its opening weekend, making it the biggest opening for a Jim Carrey movie at the time. In its first four days, it generated a total of $86.4 million, becoming the second-highest Memorial Day weekend debut. The audience reception encouraged the writers of the movie to work on a movie in which Bruce will get all his powers from Satan, not God.
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In a recent interview with Syfy, co-screenwriters Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe did crack an idea for a sequel in which they were ready to bring Bruce back for another adventure, and this time it would be Satan who would be meeting the stressed reporter. During the conversation, the writers noted that Carry and his manager were excited about the film, titled ‘Brucifer’, but when they pitched it to the studio, it never really worked out.
Koren added, “We went in and pitched it, but it never quite worked out, because it was later on … It would have been another giant movie and I don’t think they wanted to do it. It just didn’t work out for some reason, but a lot of people loved it, including Jim.”
The movie’s story was a bit dark, but it was filled with funny moments. ‘Brucifer’ would have seen Bruce turning to the dark side after the death of Grace (Jennifer Aniston), the love of his life. According to Koren, the studio didn’t like the dark parts and they were scared to invest in it. However, Carrey “understood” the project perfectly and even gave suggestions as to how they can work some things out.
“We certainly didn’t want to depress people. So I think that scared [the studio] a little bit, but to Jim’s credit, he totally understood that we were going to make a big comedy and thought everybody would connect with it. I remember when we pitched it, [Jim] was laughing his ass off. Because we had her come back as Jennifer Aniston. He said, ‘No, she has to look like a zombie first, and then we’ll make her beautiful again.’ We thought that was brilliant,” Koren said.
O’Keefe concluded by saying that ‘Brucifer’ would have been the most “cost-effective” sequel that anyone can imagine because the movie had different themes but was filled with beats that people really enjoy.
It would have been really interesting to see Bruce meeting Satan and getting powers from for some days. It could have been another win for the writers as well as Carrey. Even though they didn’t get to make ‘Brucifer’, the writers did get a chance to work on a sequel to ‘Bruce Almighty’ and primarily focused on Steve Carrell’s character Evan Baxter. Titled ‘Evan Almighty’, the movie turned out to be a box office failure as it failed to earn more than its production budget of $175 million.