Right Guy for the Gig?

It’s a marriage only the World Wrestling Federation or the producers of “Survivor” might conjure up.

In front of the camera is the Grinch, that bad-tempered, intolerant, loathsome, foul-smelling, cave-dwelling, dog-abusing, Christmas-hating green curmudgeon with an attitude worse than “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s, and the wrestler is so mean he downs beers after mashing opponents into the canvas.

Behind the camera giving the Grinch direction is Ron Howard, Hollywood’s perennial Good Guy, who as a kid sang “Gary, Indiana” in “The Music Man” and charmed the socks off American television viewers as mop-haired Opie Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show” and later as straight-arrow high schooler Richie Cunningham on “Happy Days.”

So, you begin to wonder, what were they thinking when they had Opie-Richie direct the Grinch in Universal Pictures’ new film, “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas”?

Does Opie-Richie really understand what it’s like to be a Grinch? Can he get under the skin of Dr. Seuss’ cranky emerald-colored creature who takes pleasure in doling out so much misery on the pear-shaped denizens of Whoville? Can Opie-Richie really understand the angst a Grinch must feel when he hears caroling wafting up from the townsfolk or the wellspring of rage that erupts periodically from inside the Grinch’s cavern on Mt. Crumpit when he sees the residents happily wrapping Christmas gifts? And if you’re going to direct a movie about a Grinch, shouldn’t you first get inside his shoes and walk around in them a little bit?

In short, shouldn’t Oliver Stone be directing “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas”?

“He’s not just a mean one,” Howard says of the Grinch, “he’s a messed up one.”

Sitting in his spacious seventh-floor office at Imagine Entertainment above Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, Howard exudes the same boyish qualities that endeared him to millions of TV viewers over the years, but he grows defensive when asked whether “Grinch” might be a tad dark for very young children or whether some of actor Jim Carrey’s sophisticated zingers might soar over the heads of too many youngsters. When asked if the film might be geared more toward kids 12 or 13 years old, Howard immediately tries to shoot down that theory.

“I’d go much younger than that,” he says, twisting in his chair. “It’s [rated] PG. I really beg to differ. We haven’t had any kid be disturbed by it at all. Some things may go over their heads, but I think 6-, 7-, 8-year-olds, they’ll be delighted by it. I know that because I’ve shown it to them.

“If you look at [programming on children’s cable channel] Nickelodeon, that’s pretty sophisticated stuff that has a lot of edge, and that’s not 12- or 13-year-olds,” he adds. “That’s kids. There’s a lot of bite there. We wanted to make [our film] visual, funny, physical but with enough bite and enough wit and enough great jokes that older audiences could get it too. I really hope it’s multi-generational, and it has been from our screenings.”

$120 Million Invested in ‘Grinch’

Howard was so concerned by the questioning that later a studio publicist called the reporter to stress that preview screenings have been popular with smaller children.

One can understand Howard’s nervousness. After all, Universal has invested $120 million in “Grinch,” which opens Friday, and, even with a talent like Carrey, nothing is a given in Hollywood these days.

Howard has been through this kind of situation before with less-than-stirring results.

In 1988, he directed “Willow,” a fantasy-adventure film based on a story by George Lucas of “Star Wars” fame. MGM released the movie at the start of the big summer season and, like “Grinch,” the movie was accompanied by huge publicity and merchandising. But the film didn’t live up to the hype, grossing only $57.3 million in North America.

Universal Studios Chairman Stacey Snider said Howard’s track record as a director proves that he knows how to deliver quality mainstream pictures.

“When you look at the accomplishments he’s had--’Apollo 13,’ this film, ‘Parenthood’--the artistic quality is undeniable,” Snider said. “He tends toward material that everybody else likes, too.”

The box office bears her out.

Howard’s last dozen pictures have grossed a total of $866 million in North America alone. Three of those movies have topped the $100-million mark--”Apollo 13” ($172 million), “Ransom” ($136 million) and “Parenthood” ($100 million). Many believe “Grinch” will soon join them.

But “Ransom” was four years ago, and “Apollo 13,” which received an Academy Award nomination for best picture, was five. Howard’s last film, “Ed TV,” took a box office drubbing in 1999, grossing domestically only $22.4 million.

If advanced screenings are any gauge, however, Howard could be riding another $100-million winner in “Grinch.” With the stunning retro look of Whoville, a sort of Santa’s Village-inside-a-snowflake, and the comedic genius of Carrey, whose wild antics and biting dialogue buzz-saw through scene after scene, “Grinch” has generated strong buzz.

The film, of course, is based on the classic children’s fable written in the 1950s by the late Theodor S. Geisel (Dr. Seuss). Howard received $8 million up front to direct it, although he and his producing partner at Imagine Entertainment, Brian Grazer, reduced their back-end participation to get the movie made, as did Carrey. All three are gross participants in the merchandising, although Carrey will receive a royalty for any merchandise based on his character’s name or likeness.

Grazer met Howard on the Paramount lot some two decades ago, pitching him on a comedy called “Night Shift.” But Grazer said he had a difficulty persuading studio executives that Howard was the right man for the job.

“A lot of studio execs said, ‘Ron Howard? We love the idea [for the movie], but he’s Opie!’ or ‘He’s Richie Cunningham! I said, ‘No, he’s way deeper than that.’ I remember the people who said that and, you know, most of them are out of the business now.”

Grazer said it was Howard who was instrumental in Imagine’s obtaining rights to the movie from the Geisel estate.

After initially losing out on an auction for the rights (every participating studio had to put up $3 million just to make a pitch), Grazer said, he persuaded Geisel’s widow to give him a second chance.

“I get Ron on the phone, and he’s in Connecticut, where he lives, and I said, ‘I need you to help me get this,’ ” Grazer recalled. “I said, ‘We’re team players. We’ve got to help each other. I don’t have a take on it. Get on an airplane. You have five hours [to come up with an angle].’ ”

During the flight, Howard jotted down some ideas he had for the Grinch. By the end of the meeting in La Jolla with Audrey Geisel, Imagine had the rights.

Filling in Spaces Left by Dr. Seuss

Both Howard and Carrey agreed that the Grinch should be presented as Dr. Seuss drew him, but because the book gives little details about the Grinch’s early years, Howard felt the movie should attempt to fill in the spaces.

“I kept saying, ‘Why is he in a cave? Why is he living with a dog? What’s going on? What’s that all about?” Howard recalled. “Jim loved that. He loved that the story would kind of explore that. Many of my favorite scenes are scenes where he is alone in that cave, just tied in knots, figuring out what he is going to do next.

“Simply put, I decided that how the Grinch stole Christmas would be the third act,” Howard added, “and the first two acts would be why the Grinch stole Christmas, and we would work with it comedicly and work backward from the clues that we had and develop some other ideas.”

At 46, the Oklahoma-born Howard may have lost much of his hair, but he retains the affability that TV viewers remember with fondness. He is not one of those directors who exude haughtiness or dislike the actors they work with. Perhaps that is why, throughout his directorial career, he has worked with some of the industry’s top stars, including Carrey, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson and Steve Martin.

“I think he understands acting for sure,” Carrey says. “He raises everybody’s game.”

Howard long ago transformed himself from child star to one of the more formidable filmmakers in Hollywood. He and Grazer, for instance, were recently ranked 41st in Entertainment Weekly magazine’s annual “Power List” of Hollywood’s 100 top players.

From “Apollo 13” to “Parenthood,” he has defied being pigeon-holed from his roots in television comedy, hopping from genre to genre like a Kasparov chess piece, whether it’s romantic comedy (“Splash”), action-adventure (“Backdraft”), fantasy (“Willow”) or drama (“Ransom”).

“As an actor, I was rigidly defined,” Howard said. “I knew I didn’t want to singularly make comedies throughout my whole career. I made this determination that I would sort of try not to be typecast as a director. Early on, I did subconsciously try to mix it up enough so I could prove to the creative community here and audiences in general that this movie, ‘Cocoon,’ isn’t like ‘Splash,’ exactly, or ‘Parenthood’ isn’t like ‘Willow.’ They’re different.”

‘Night Shift’ Catches Industry’s Attention

Since he caught the industry’s attention in 1982 by directing “Night Shift,” an R-rated comedy about a call-girl ring operating out of a big-city morgue that starred Henry Winkler, Shelly Long and, in a breakout role, Michael Keaton, Howard has excelled in making mainstream Hollywood films.

He made those kind of films, Howard said, because he felt an obligation to the future of Imagine, but he does not rule out making a smaller movie some day.

“I’d be shocked if I didn’t find and try one of those movies at some point,” he said, adding, “There may be a time when all I can do is raise $3.5 million.”

His home is now a continent away in Greenwich, Conn., where he lives with his wife, childhood sweetheart Cheryl Alley, whom he married in 1975. She has appeared in most of her husband’s films in nonspeaking roles and is seen in “Grinch,” although Howard admits it might be difficult to spot her as one of Whoville’s residents. They have four children.

Howard looks back on “The Andy Griffith Show” with fondness. “He taught me how to act,” Howard said of Griffith. “He taught me how to understand a story. But I never felt Andy was a surrogate father. . . . He wasn’t my dad, but he was important.”

After appearing in George Lucas’ ground-breaking teen film, “American Graffiti,” Howard was cast as Richie Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom, “Happy Days.” In 1977, he made his feature debut as director and co-writer at age 23 with “Grand Theft Auto,” in which he also starred, but it was “Night Shift” that put him on the map as a filmmaker and later “Splash” that proved he was a hit-maker to be reckoned with.

The one movie that hurt the most, he admits, was “Far and Away,” the saga of an Irish tenant farmer who comes to America during the Oklahoma land rush of 1893. The 1992 film starred Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

“Financially, it was not a debacle,” Howard said. “That one was hurtful for this reason: It was the most extraordinary filmmaking. I had so much fun making the movie. We did this land rush sequence. I had three ancestors in the land rush. We were sitting there waiting for the starting gun to go off, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this looks so authentic.’ It was the closet to being in a time machine. I thought, ‘This is what my ancestors must have felt like because they were on the starting line.’ ”

Like Rob Reiner and Penny Marshall, two other television stars who went on to become noted filmmakers, Howard has made memorable films but has not been graced with an Academy Award nomination.

Though “Apollo 13” received nine Oscar nominations, none was for Howard. Asked why he thinks he was snubbed, he replies: “I have no idea. The 300 or so members of the directors branch of the academy have, you know, have yet to feel that one of my movies qualifies. That’s disappointing because I love the tradition of the Academy Awards and would love to be in on it. I’ve been to several. ‘Splash’ got a screenplay nomination and a couple other nominations. Don Ameche won [for ‘Cocoon’].

“And it got a couple for special effects. Usually, when I get a movie with several nominations, I go. ‘Apollo 13’ got nine. Of course, I wasn’t among them.”