Farrelly Brothers readying Stooges saga
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Peter and Bobby Farrelly say they’re close enough to a final line-up of cast members for their Three Stooges biopic to poke ‘em in the eyeballs.
At least that’s what the writing, producing and directing team of brothers were hinting at during a press conference in February, while promoting their lastest comedy, “Hall Pass,” starring Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.
“Yeah, we’ve been working on (the Stooges project) for about 10 years, maybe longer,” Bobby Farrelly told reporters who were gathered at the Four
Seasons Hotel on Grammy Awards weekend.
“We finally have just gotten it into preproduction, so we are gonna shoot it a little later this spring.”
The on-again, off-again casting rumors have included such names as Jim Carrey as Curly Howard, Benicio Del Toro as Moe Howard and Sean Penn as Larry Fine.
Then it was reported that Carrey and Penn had dropped out. Paul Giamatti was mentioned as a second choice to play Larry, and Farrelly regular Richard Jenkins reportedly has signed on in some capacity. To play Shemp, perhaps?
The Farrellys have long credited the mid-20th century Vaudeville and film comedy trio as major influences on their careers, which have produced such outrageous comedies as “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Me, Myself & Irene.”
“No question they were a big influence on us,” Bobby Farrelly said. “We grew up watching ‘em. We’d come home from school and watch them on TV and laugh. These were guys from the 1930s and ’40s. I don’t know, we just felt like that type of slapstick humor that they did was very timeless and fun and we want to try to recreate it.”
However, the brothers still weren’t ready to name any names yet.
“Right now we are diligently casting it, trying to find out who the right guys are,” Bobby Farrelly said. “It’s not an easy job because you know even the great actors might struggle with those particular roles. So we’re looking at everyone and probably will have it cast in about a month or so. We are gonna make it and we’re very excited about it.”
Chances are it could be Stooge-pendous. N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk.
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