UPDATED with statements from Red Granite and DiCaprio reps: The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section has outlined the tangled web of money laundering and the ill-gotten finances that were funneled into Red Granite and used to fund Hollywood films. In a government filing today, the DOJ…

EXCLUSIVE: After November’s Dumb And Dumber To scored $128 million worldwide (and counting), it’s a no-brainer that Red Granite would want to stay in the Jim Carrey business. I hear the finance and production shingle led by Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland has snapped up comedy pitch Deep Cover from writer Johnny…

EXCLUSIVE: Penelope Cruz is signing on to star with Ben Stiller in Zoolander 2, the comedy that puts Stiller back behind the camera again, with a Justin Theroux script for Paramount Pictures. Stiller will reprise his role as empty headed supermodel Derek Zoolander, and there have been rumors that Will Ferrell will be…

UPDATE, TUESDAY, 4:02 AM PT: A couple of things have happened in the world of international box office since late Sunday night. We now know that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I will not be bowing in China in the 2014 calendar year, and we have a little more insight into why Korea is like the proverbial black…

It’s official: Jim Carrey is back. Universal/Red Granite’s Dumb and Dumber To took No. 1 this weekend with $36.1M, outpacing Disney’s Big Hero 6 which settled for second with $34.66M, off 38% in its second weekend.  Word of mouth late Saturday night was that Big Hero 6 could rally the weekend, particularly in how the…

UPDATE SUNDAY, 8:17 a.m.: Conventional wisdom holds that you don't release sequels two decades apart, particularly in a lightning-bottle genre like comedy. But wisdom has never held much sway in the Dumb and Dumber franchise, which returned after a two-decade dormancy to engage in a nip-and-tuck battle with Big Hero 6…

Update, Sunday, 1:15 AM: Big Hero 6 was bench pressing and drinking Red Bull yesterday as the kid toon surged 105% in its second Saturday over its second Friday with $16.5M, kicking Universal’s Dumb and Dumber Two To into second for a day’s haul of $14.39M. While industry weekend estimates as of tonight see DDT taking…

UPDATE, 12:30 PM: Intersellar continued to rock it in China on Thursday, with Warner Bros reporting it grossed $5M on the day after opening on Wednesday with $5.4M on 7,742 screens. That Day One lift-off gave director Christopher Nolan his biggest opening in the market to date. Warners said the sci-fi pic has more…

It only took 20 years for the Farrelly Brothers to come up with a true sequel to their 1994 hit, Dumb And Dumber, but as I say in my video review above, maybe they could have waited a while longer. The film stars Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey as the dopey duo, this time trying to track down the long-lost daughter of one…

Universal Pictures and Red Granite’s Dumb And Dumber To was no has-been Thursday night, drawing $1.6 million at evening shows in  2,321 theaters. Showtimes for the Jim Carrey-Jeff Daniels gross-out sequel kicked off at 8 PM. Industry estimates peg that DDT  will think up a weekend haul of $30M-$32M thanks to the…

Dumb And Dumber was one of those creatures that can exist only in a Hollywood ecosystem. It made a pretty healthy splash 20 years ago, opening at No. 1 with $16.4M on its way to a $127.2M domestic take. But getting stars Jim Carrey (then just coming off The Mask) and Jeff Daniels (who had wrapped Speed) reunited…

Former Langley Park Pictures story editor Mika Pryce has been tapped as creative executive at Red Granite Pictures, the indie finance, production and distribution outfit run by Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland. Pryce, who also has worked at Evolution Media Capital and Lionsgate International, will report to Red Granite…