It’s going to be merry Grinchmas all over again. Universal and Imagine Entertainment are developing a sequel to 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, with three key players expected to return.
Jim Carrey is in talks to reprise his role as the classic Dr. Seuss character the Grinch, with Ron Howard returning to direct. Howard will produce alongside his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer.
The untitled sequel will have a script by Alec Berg (Barry, Silicon Valley, Curb Your Enthusiasm), Jeff Schaffer (Life, Larry and The Pursuit of Unhappiness, Dave, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and David Mandel (Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm). The trio also worked on the 2003 Seuss adaptation The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers.
Released just ahead of Thanksgiving in 2000, How The Grinch Stole Christmas was the top movie of the year domestically with $260 million and earning a total of $345 million worldwide.
It also took home the best makeup Oscar for Rick Baker and Gail Rowell-Ryan, who transformed Carrey for the role. The process took around eight hours a day, and Carrey has recalled it being extremely difficult. As he told Vulture last year, he wanted to quit on day one of production and return his $20 million fee. He got through it with the help of a man who trained CIA agents to withstand torture, as well as thanks to the makeup eventually being reduced to three hours a day.
The story of the Grinch dates back to 1957, with Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) publishing the story inspired by his unhappiness with the commercialism overtaking Christmas. It told the story of the Grinch trying to ruin Christmas for the residents of Whoville by stealing their gifts. CBS made it as a 1966 animated special, with Boris Karloff voicing the narrator and The Grinch. Co-director Chuck Jones opted to make the Grinch green, a departure from the book’s black and white.
The 2000 movie has become a durable hit on streaming, and has been among Nielsen’s top 10 most streamed holiday movies in each of the last five years. And, last year in the two weeks ahead of and after Christmas (Dec. 15-Dec. 28), it peaked at No. 2 overall on the movies chart with 962 million minutes viewed, just below the perennial No. 1 champ Home Alone. Notably, Carrey’s Grinch movie also ranked ahead of the 2018 animated movie in those key two weeks on last year’s holiday streaming ratings chart. That Illumination and Universal feature, Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch, hit No. 8 in the week ahead of Dec. 25.
As for the new sequel, CEO Susan Brandt will oversee for Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Senior vice president of production development and special projects Britt Hennemuth and creative executive Christina Hoffrogge will oversee for Universal.
Howard is represented by CAA and Greenberg Glusker. Carrey is represented by WME and attorney Deborah Klein. Berg is represented by UTA and HJTH. Schaffer is represented by UTA and HJTH.
Mandel is represented by WME and HJTH. Imagine Entertainment is represented by CAA.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises is represented by CAA.
—Erik Hayden contributed to this story.

AEW rolled into Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land, Texas, for yesterday’s episode of Dynamite, where they also taped Saturday’s (June 20) episode of Collision.
AEW has advertised multiple matches for this weekend’s show. Let’s see how the results panned out, courtesy of spoilers from Wrestling Observer Radio.
“Jungle” Jack Perry & Young Bucks defeated The Lethal Twist in a trios match.
Maya World beat ROH Women’s World Champion Athena to advance to the final match of the women’s Owen Hart tournament. Athena and Mercedes Mone attacked the underdog babyface after the match was over.
Zack Sabre Jr. picked up a win over Adam Priest in a match that “went too long.”
Chris Jericho and Tommaso Ciampa had a face-to-face confrontation to set up a match on July 8 at AEW Dynamite Beach Break.
The Hurt Syndicate quickly beat two jobbers. Afterwards, MVP’s group said they are no longer interested in winning championships, they just want to make money.
Mistico returned to AEW and defeated Dante Martin. Mistico got a “giant reaction” during his entrance.
PAC beat Jay Alexander. It was announced that PAC will fight IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship Shota Umino at Forbidden Door.
Kris Statlander advanced to the Survival of the Fittest match with a win over Mina Shirakawa. Harley Cameron was on commentary for this bout.
Do you plan to check out Collision on Saturday night on TNT and/or Max? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.

Health and fitness influencer Carly Douglas, a married mom of three, has died just three months after tearfully revealing she’d been diagnosed with cancer. She was 36.
The South Carolina mom died on Saturday after being diagnosed in March with stage 4 gastric cancer, her family announced in a heartbreaking Instagram post Wednesday.
“Carly fought cancer with grit and determination; while being full of hope and always pointing anyone who would listen, back to God, the One who held her in the palm of His hand,” the lengthy post said.
“Carly was joy personified, pure sunshine. It felt as though her smile was permanently stitched on her face and her laugh was constantly waiting to bubble out of her. To be known by Carly Faye, was to be loved by Carly Faye,” it continued, adding how “she treasured her children.”
Douglas shared three children – River, Faye and Townes – with her husband David.
A series of photos included in the post showed her beaming widely with her husband and kids.
“We are devastated for us here, without her. The Carly sized hole left in her family and friends’ lives will never be filled. But, we do not grieve without hope,” the emotional post said.
“We know she is whole, complete, and the most joyful radiant version of herself. More than anything, Carly would want everyone who reads this to pursue God and the eternal peace she has now. Carly Faye Douglas is home. Joshua 1:9.”
Douglas – who boasted more than 137,000 followers on Instagram where she posted about her children, health routines and workouts – had revealed in a tearful March video that doctors found a large bleeding tumor on her stomach.
She called the diagnosis “living in a nightmare” and went on to share videos and updates of her chemotherapy treatments and hospital visits.
“I think I’ve walked through every stage of grief possible, but one thing that has never left is just this overwhelming sense of peace that I’m going to be okay and that I’m gonna fight,” Douglas said while donning a hospital gown in the March 24 video.
“I have to for my kids and for so many people I love. I just know that the Lord is going to sustain me every step of the way. I’m so lucky and so appreciative for the village I have. I’m going to beat this.”

Vox Media, the digital publisher that rose in the 2010s with ambitions to build itself up as a modern version of old school magazine titans like Time Inc., has sold off its remaining assets in a deal that winds down an era.
Publishing brands, including food authority Eater, tech destination The Verge, sports network SB Nation, travel brand Thrillist, lifestyle site Popsugar, animal story-focused The Dodo and drinking culture site Punch, were acquired by Penske Media, the companies said on Thursday.
The move formally concludes the multiyear sales process for Vox Media, which had been steered by CEO Jim Bankoff since 2009. On May 20, the exec revealed a sale of crown jewel magazine New York as well as its podcast assets (like Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway) and namesake site, Vox, to Fox empire scion James Murdoch’s venture firm, which Bankoff will join and lead.
Eater, The Verge and the other publishing brands were cleaved off into what was called RemainCo, run by Ryan Pauley, the revenue, strategy and operations-focused executive who has been at Vox Media since 2013. Speculation at the time of Murdoch’s New York buy centered on whether each of the publishing assets would be sold separately or be shopped as whole package. One factor in the dealmaking was a 2023 pact between Penske Media and Vox in which the Jay Penske-run company had taken a stake in the Bankoff-led media firm.
Now those brands, along with Vox’s ad tech products like marketplace Concert and data platform Forte, will join a publishing company that also owns The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Billboard, WWD, Variety, ARTnews, Robb Report and other publications. Pauley will transition to Penske, joining as president of PMX (the newly named unit that will house all the media brands). Penske exec Tom Finn will become COO of the division and Ken Delalcazar will be CFO.
“I am very proud to welcome this tremendous team and leading brands to Penske Media,” said founder and CEO Jay Penske. “We have long admired these unique brands and companies, and I’m thrilled to welcome Ryan Pauley to PMC.”
Pauley added, “Our opportunity now is to steward and grow these brands with a continued focus on brand leadership, editorial strength, audience connection, community, and live events.”
Vox, originally founded in 2005 with a very of-the-moment name of SportsBlogs Inc., launched with SB Nation, a collection of team-specific verticals focused on fan-driven reaction (a typical post: “The offense stunk on Saturday”) that contrasted with the more staid local newspaper coverage in that era. This was around the time when rival, fan-centric sports sites like Bleacher Report were scaling up (BR sold to Turner for a reported $200 million in 2012) and aggregators like The Huffington Post were seen as the next wave of media.
And it was a few years removed from the rise of Millennial-focused media companies like BuzzFeed (sold to local TV station mogul Byron Allen in May), Mashable (sold to media operator Ziff Davis in 2017), Business Insider (sold to German media giant Axel Springer for $450 million in 2015), Mic (sunsetted at Bryan Goldberg’s Bustle Media) and Vice Media (filed for bankruptcy in 2023, then relaunched in pieces). Those outlets had attracted major venture capital dollars in a bet that the transition from linear TV and print would result in consumers flocking to new brands on the open web.
Bankoff’s firm expanded with former Engadget staffers to debut The Verge in 2011 and launched gaming site Polygon the next year (the brand was sold to media firm Valnet in 2025). It made a bet on the Lockhart Steele-founded, real estate-focused Curbed network (which included Eater as well as the since-folded shopping site Racked) in 2013. Then it hired away The Washington Post‘s Wonkblog editor, Ezra Klein, to launch its namesake explainer site Vox a year later (Klein left in 2020 to become a columnist at The New York Times, and also helped usher in another new wave of media: video podcasting).
In 2019, Bankoff made a deal with New York owner Pamela Wasserstein, whose family had owned the glossy magazine for 15 years, to add the publication and digital offshots like entertainment vertical Vulture and fashion brand The Cut to the Vox portfolio. (Now those assets are set to be part of Murdoch’s burgeoning Lupa Systems stable, which also includes Art Basel and the Tribeca Film Festival.) In a bid to scale up in 2022, Vox merged with the Ben Lerer-founded Group Nine Media, which brought The Dodo, PopSugar and Thrillist into the fold, along with video-focused politics site NowThis, which was spun off as an independent site a year later.
Of the deal to acquire the remaining Vox brands, Craig Perreault, president of Penske Media, which also owns festivals like SXSW and stages events like the Golden Globes, stated, “These distinct digital brands bring highly engaged audiences with them, complement our existing portfolio, strengthen our content offering, and expand the possibilities for the hundreds of live events PMX will produce each year.”

Comedian Carlos Mencia is in some trouble with the law … the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says they’ll soon be announcing criminal charges against him.
D.A. Nathan J. Hochman says he will announce the charges against Mencia at 2 PM PT in a Thursday press conference outside the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles.
It’s unclear what exactly the charges will be … but the D.A.’s office says they’ve been filed as the first case by L.A.’s newly created Business Tax Fraud Unit.
This isn’t Mencia’s first time in hot water. According to NR Today, the IRS filed a lien in July 2021 that claimed he and his wife, Amy, owed almost $1.2 million for 3 years of unpaid federal income tax.
TMZ will be live streaming the press conference later today.