Even though the MGM collapse was sad for a variety of reasons, something small inside me was smirking when that meant The Three Stooges movie helmed by the Farrelly Brothers wouldn’t see the light of day. Couple that with its two marquee stars, Jim Carrey and Sean Penn, leaving the project and it was ready to be buried and forgotten in an unmarked grave next to other really stupid ideas. It was a moment of triumph…and then 20th Century Fox had to come in and poo poo all over it.
20th Century Fox has taken the movie off MGM’s hands and is putting this long-talked about project into development right away. [Deadline]
They’ve even got an official shooting date: March 14th, 2011.The Farrelly Brothers are still on board to direct, but with the original cast all but gone (Benicio Del Toro, who was going to play Moe, may still be on), it’s time to look for new actors and quick. Here’s the plot for The Three Stooges, also taken from Deadline:
The picture takes place when the trio are dumped out as newborns at the door of an orphanage, and they are talking with Richard Jenkins to play the head nun who is terrorized by the precocious Stooges. The comedy follows them to adulthood and is very much in the spirit of the original shorts, in which the blue collar bumblers got the best of the wealthy society matrons that tried to exploit them.
I wanted to try to present this without bias, but I just can’t; The Three Stooges were a big part of my childhood and I’m protective of their legacy. I know the slapstick is hit or miss in the current day, but I can watch them for hours on end and forever be entertained. And now they not only want to make a Stooges movie (not a biopic, but an actual STOOGES MOVIE), but they are going to re-cast the whole thing? Remaking a crappy 70’s horror film is one thing, but you’re talking about COMEDY ICONS here. People were angry back when Moe and Larry replaced Curly and Shemp with a pair of lackluster imitators in the twilight of their careers. I’m not a Farrelly Brothers hater, but this just a bad idea. A really, really BAD idea.
And on that note…
Do you think I’m wrong? Are The Three Stooges able to remain funny in 2010 with a completely new cast and spin? Please tell me…I’d like to know.