What About Jim?

Fresh off the lowest point of his career since his Rubberface days, Jim Carrey is poised for a massive late-career comedic breakthrough. He's back on board for the on-and-off Ripley's Believe it or Not, he's joining Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Isla Fisher, and Jonah Hill voicing Horton Hears a Who, and most exciting of all, he's now attached to star in a new script from Upright Citizen Ian Roberts and writing partner Jay Martel, and surprise, it sounds pretty effin' funny. Me Time would star Carrey as a writer working on a biography for his great-great-grandmother, whose tough-as-nails frontier lifestyle makes him take a hard look at his less-than-masculine lifestyle. The spec script has been picked up by Fox, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but Carrey's involvement should be enough to propel it into it theaters.

Roberts and Martel have been keeping insanely busy, seemingly sending spec scripts to every studio in America, including Dad Can't Lose for Will Arnett, Worst Friends, and Air Guitar. So far, they've had lots of pick-ups, but there's been no solid production news.

Meanwhile, the second season of Upright Citizens Brigade is finally on its way to stores, and Roberts will join Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, and Matt Walsh at their LA theater this Saturday to record a live commentary for two of the episodes.

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Matt Besser Walks With Me

Fellow comedy reporters The Coming have posted an info-packed interview with Matt Besser, who has been keeping himself so busy that we can't stop posting features about him. Among the major revelations is that he'll be playing the guitarist in John C. Reilly's faux hit band in Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow's biopic spoof Walk Hard, and that he's Kanye West's official improv coach for his upcoming untitled HBO mockumentary created by Larry Charles. Futhermore, he's writing a new film called Safety First for pal Amy Poehler.

Meanwhile, the Upright Citizens Brigade just finished a weekend of filming for a new Shout! Factory DVD release of ASSSSCAT 3000, which previously failed to catch on as a Bravo series. The four taped specials featured all four UCBers, as well as Horatio Sanz, Chad Carter, Sean Conroy, and Andrew Daly, plus improv-launching monologues from Will Arnett, Tom Lennon, Ed Helms, Paul F. Tompkins, and Jen Kirkman. Besser hopes the DVD will do well enough to kick off a sort of UCB/Shout! Factory imprint label where they can release even more footage from their various live output. He also announces that they're working on a new UCB website to feature daily videos and more.

All in all, a pretty good way to stick it to Comedy Central for canceling one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time, don't you think?

Matt Besser Explains UCB Delays, Wants Your Songs

The Upright Citizens Brigade's Matt Besser has a new MySpace page, which he promises to pack full of new exclusive videos such as the Catching Friends webisodes, where MySpace Tom explains how to attract friends to your profile by lying about your interests. More importantly, he's provided information on the status of the second season of the UCB's sketch comedy show, and the entirely improvised UCB movie, Wild Girls Gone. Both of these projects have been in limbo for a long, long time, so this should cause a giant sigh of relief for fans of the alternative comedy troupe.

Comedy Central will release Upright Citizens Brigade: The Complete Second Season this fall, and Besser has put out an APB for fan-created music to be part of the DVD extras. The new collection comes not a moment too soon, since the first season has been out for over three years. Presumably the third and final season won't take nearly as long.

He also explains that Wild Girls Gone, which was filmed about a billion years ago, has been in a long, painful editing process to whittle down the enormous amounts of footage they shot, and could finally see a release as early as this summer. The film stars Besser, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Amy Poehler in a story of a small-town dance contest that gets mixed up with a start-up amateur porn video. It also features a laundry list of up-and-comers that UCB Theatre visitors should be more than familiar with, including Rob Riggle, Andrew Daly, Rob Huebel, Danielle Schneider, John Ross Bowie, and Jamie Denbo. There's no word on theatrical distribution, but Besser says they're prepared to sell the DVD directly through their website.

Besser will also be seen alongside Chris Kattan and Brian Posehn later this year in Undead or Alive, playing the sheriff in an Old West town plagued by zombies.