Tuesday
Nov042008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 5:30AM Farrelly Brothers Rebooting 'The Three Stooges'
Peter and
Bobby Farrelly
finally have a studio commitment for one of their dream projects. The brothers
will write and direct
The Three Stooges, which is more or less what
you think it is.
This idea is nothing new to the brothers, who worked on the project for about half a decade over at Warner Bros. before moving over to MGM, which will release the comedy on November 20, 2009, opposite the animated Planet 51 and Sherlock Holmes.
Said Farrelly, "We know this is extremely difficult to pull off; we realize some Stooges fans will be upset no matter what we do," adding, "we love the Stooges and honor their memory, and we don’t want them to disappear. We hope that next Thanksgiving, dads will introduce their kids to the Stooges and create a new generation of knuckleheads."
A nationwide search will be conducted to find the new Curly; think American Idol for loud, fat guys.
I have no strong conviction about this either way. Purists will obviously be alarmed by this and others who follow Peter and Bobby closely will think they're stunting. The rationale that you want to introduce a new generation to The Three Stooges by remaking it is something I support, but it seems like such an isolated thing to try to recapture. That team didn't work because they were put into films. They were put into films because they worked. Want proof? Watch anything with Curly Joe or even when Shemp rejoined the team after Curly's stroke.
So it's not as easy as paying tribute and developing this insanely funny slapstick comedy on the fly. Plus, the Farrellys haven't made anything funny since There's Something About Mary.
Reader Comments (5)
And who do you get to play the stooges, anyway? Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear? Robert DeNiro? Owen Wilson?
Plus there's the easy temptation to hire someone who looks the part, but doesn't have the aura of the original (Attention Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh!).
When it comes to Curly, do you hire a bald guy with no talent, or a talented guy and shave him bald?
Well, Curly shaved his head to get the part, because he was actually a bit of dandy before that. He had this thick, long auburn hair and a well-manicured 'stache, and even though he was family, the guy who made the movies wasn't going to hire him because he didn't look Stooge enough.
So you hire a great physical comedian and shave his head. I vote for Sammo Hung...(not really).
Sammo Hung? What about Fred Ward, Woody Harrelson, and Bill Murray?
Don't you mean Fred Willard, dummy? And why don't you change your name back to the way it was?
Because I am RETIRING from posting comments on blogs and devoting all of my energy to music!
Knyuck, Knyuck, Knyuck.