Russell had hoped that “The Mask” would be Carrey’s first film. His entire concept of doing ‘The Mask’ as a comedy rather than the horror film New Line imagined was inspired by Jim Carrey’s work in stand-up and on Fox’s sketch comedy series “In Living Color.”īefore he hired Carrey, though, he had to convince New Line of “two or three things that were very different for them at the time - that was using this technology and doing ‘The Mask’ as a comedy rather than a horror film.” But it also had a unique look and vision of its own.” The original Dark Horse comic is something they used to call ‘Splatterpunk,’ which I felt was very inspired by Freddy Krueger and the ‘Elm Street series. In the comic, said Russell, “the character would put on the mask, have a couple of scary, but funny lines and then chop people up with an ax. Though he had been a producer on the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy hit “Back to School,” Russell had earned acclaimed for New Line’s 1987 horror flick, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.” And the then- indie studio was looking to create another horror franchise like ‘Elm Street” with the popular and violent Dark Horse comic book series. It was Russell who envisioned “The Mask” as a comedy.

He’s a crime fighter, a superhero in a dark way like Deadpool.” He’s doing all these cartoony insane things. Stanley, he said, “talks to the audience” like Ryan Reynolds’ masked Deadpool. It’s interesting looking back at the film now - it’s really the precursor to ‘Deadpool’ in a lot of ways. “The Mask,” he added, “is a great combination of great source material, both the comic book and the Tex Avery cartoons and the unbelievable great casting of Jim Carrey. It had a crime noir plot and cartoon references.” It wasn’t really anything, on one hand, like ‘Roger Rabbit.’ On the other hand, it was a lot like it. Rounding out the cast was a charmer named Max, a Jack Russell Terrier, who played Stanley’s beloved pet, Milo.įeaturing Oscar and BAFTA-nominated visual effects and colorful BAFTA-nominated production design, “The Mask” made over $351 million worldwide - not bad for production budgeted at $23 million.Īnimation historian Jerry Beck noted “The Mask” was the perfect follow-up for a “film like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit,’ which was a gigantic sensation of 1988. Peter Greene played her boyfriend, the vile gangster Dorian Tyrell, and comic Richard Jeni was Stanley’s best friend Charlie. She proved to be a contemporary Carole Lombard and her career took off like a rocket.

“The Mask” introduced movie audiences to a young model named Cameron Diaz as Tina, the object of Stanley’s affections. The masked Stanley is a human Tex Avery cartoon, a wisecracking zoot-suited dynamo who cracks wise and dances a la Carmen Miranda to the Desi Arnaz song “Cuban Pete.”

The mask cameron diaz