Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the writer/directors behind Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary are set to direct an updated Three Stooges pic from their own script - a project the pair have been trying to make for several years.
At one point in development, when it was on the production slate at Warner Brothers, there were casting rumours attaching Benecio Del Toro and Jim Carrey to the pic, but the project was shelved. Cut to five years later, and the project is back on, with MGM picking up the tab.
Moe, Larry and Curly are the best known line-up of The Three Stooges, but over a career spanning 40 years, from the early 1930s to 1970, there were as many as nine different Stooges, responsible for some 190 short films.
The Farrelly Brothers script will apparently set the trio in the modern day, but without updating their look or their act. According to the Farrellys, the pic will be a family friendly physical comedy with lots of slapstick humour – just like the original shorts, then.
No casting rumours as yet, but there is talk of an ‘American Idol’ type contest to find a physical comedy performer to play Curly, who is considered the most gifted member of the trio. No word on whether Simon Cowell will be judging.
At Empire, we love a bit of early Farrelly Brothers, and though they’ve been a little more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’ the last few years with The Heartbreak Kid and The Perfect Catch failing to reach the heights of their best work, The Three Stooges could prove a return to kind of silly, physical comedy they did so well in the 90s. Here's hoping.