It had been shelved, but Paramount is not abandoning Ripley’s Believe It or Not! as they have brought on Steve Oedekerk to give the script an overhaul. Tim Burton is still aboard to direct and Jim Carrey is also still in place to star as Ripley.
The film based on Ripley at the time when he gained celebrity status through a “Believe It or Not” column that chronicled his search for the greatest oddities in the world. Along the way, he starts to respect his unusual human discoveries as more than mere conquests to be documented. However, it seems Oedekerk has a new take that has been approved by the studio, which will work to ramp up the spectacle factor for a budget comparable to the original as the old budget sky-rocketed north of $150 million. Paramount is eyeing a winter 2008 production start in China and a 2009 release date.
Oedekerk has a history with Carrey as he wrote and directed Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and scripted Bruce Almighty.
