Ah, the Three Stooges. Countless hours of my formative years were spent watching their short films, usually on high-numbered UHF stations that mostly aired re-runs of “Get Smart,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Petticoat Junction,” “That Girl,” “Green Acres” and “The Flying Nun.”
Did you know that a “Three Stooges” movie has been in pre-production since 1998? This is something I learned today, courtesy of Deadline.com. The film, which is scheduled to begin production this month, has announced that Sean Hayes is signed to play the role of Larry Fine, and Will Sasso will lend his complex multi-talents to the role of Curly.
The question remains — who will give life to the surly, menacing mug of Moe Howard? Rumors have been swirling around this project for longer than the entire span of Miley Cyrus’s career. Will it be noted Stooges fanatic Mel Gibson? Not a bad choice and someone we wouldn’t mind seeing on the receiving end of some physical abuse. Not a bad choice at all.
Will the next “face of Moe” be Sean Penn? He was originally slated to play Larry Fine, which does not make sense, because he’s got a mug that only a mother could love, and a bowl cut wig would go a long way towards making us believe that Moe had come back to life.
Interesting to note is that many actors have been attached to this project over the last decade — Benicio del Toro, Jim Carrey, Johnny Knoxville, Andy Samberg, an Australian actor called Shane Jacobson. Johnny Depp and Paul Giamatti have been attached to this movie as well, but later dropped out of the project.
Mel Brooks attempted to write and produce a Three Stooges movie in the 70’s, but said his effort fell short because there was no way he could sustain the action for 90 minutes. The film would have starred Mel Brooks as Moe, Dom DeLuise as Curly, and Marty Feldman as Larry. When the writing just wasn’t working, Mel turned the project turned into the unique “Silent Movie.”
Apparently the Farrelly brothers have solved Mel’s conundrum — they decided to divide the movie into three 27-minute segments which complete one story arc. This should give the audience a breather in between all the action, so when Mel Gibson gets crowned (please, please, let him get crowned) for the umpteenth time, we’re still cheering for more.
Also of note — this is not a biography of our beloved Stooges. This is a newly written story of the Stooges’ antics. Should be interesting to see if it is set in modern times or in the 1920’s or 1930’s.
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