Deadline is reporting that Paramount Pictures is once again attempting to stage a big-screen biopic about newspaper columnist Robert Ripley. Ripley, who rose to prominence with his syndicated column exploring the world’s strange people and their customs, has become a brand name in recent years — inspiring a line of novelty museums, a television show, a book series and now, hopefully, a movie to be written by Eric Roth.
Roth, who previously wrote Forest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, will pen the story of Ripley’s travels. Jim Carrey, who was previously set to star when the film was to be directed by Tim Burton in 2007, is still attached. Burton is no longer set to direct.
Roth’s script will join the ranks of previous attempts to adapt the adventurer’s life story by writers Scott Alexande, Larry Karaszewski and John Collee. Director Chris Columbus was at one point also attached to the project.
