Believe It Or Not: Michel Gondry To Direct Jim Carrey's Ripleys?

A couple weeks ago it was reported that Tim Burton would no longer be directing the Jim Carrey action/adventure biopic Ripley's Believe It or Not! Paramount was said to be looking for a new director for the troubled project. Our friends at FilmIck are now reporting that Michel Gondry is in talks to direct the film. I'm not sure how reliable this information is, but the Internet Movie Database has also recently replaced Burton's name with Gondry.

Gondry is (of course) responsible for two of the most unique movies of recent years: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Believe It or Not is said to picks up with 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.

The project has been plagued since the beginning with cast changes and shooting schedule delays due to budgetary concerns. The studio ordered the the script be reworked after Carrey's and Burton's endless brainstorming resulted in the FX budget skyrocketing to gigantic proportions. Las we heard they hoped to wrangle the budget to the $150 million range.