Penn, Carrey, Del Toro… The Three Stooges?

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MGM and the Farrelly Brothers are closing in on their cast for their The Three Stooges film.

Sean Penn has been cast to play Larry, and negotiations are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the physical dimensions of Jerome “Curly” Howard. Also, the Farrellys are zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.

No, the film is not going to be a biopic, but in fact a comedy built around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard made legendary in the Columbia Pictures shorts.

The quest by Peter and Bobby Farrelly to bring the project to fruition spans more than a decade and three studios. They first tried at Columbia, then at Warner Bros. and finally brought it to MGM, where Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman Mary Parent championed the cause, bought the WB-owned scripts and made a deal with Stooges rights holders C3.

Production on the Farrelly Bros. written script will begin in early fall for a release sometime in 2010.

The project will get underway after Penn completes director Asger Leth’s Cartel. Penn hasn’t appeared in a comedy since 1989’s We’re No Angels.

The Farrellys have had their eyes on Del Toro to play Moe for a while. Del Toro, whose Che is in theaters now, showed off his comedic abilities in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.

The surprise is the emergence of Carrey to play Curly. Howard established the character as a seminal physical comedian, from the first time he appeared in the first Stooges short in 1934 until he suffered a stroke on the set in 1946.

source: Variety

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years