Updated: Since this story broke,
EW have spoke to Peter Farrelly who updates us on
The Three Stooges situation;
You dont want people to think they already cast that thing, because we havent... Its wide open to everybody.
Johnny Knoxville,
Andy Samberg and Aussie comic
Shane Jacobson ('Kenny' and he hosts 'Top Gear' in Australia)
are reportedly on 20th Century Fox's shortlist to portray Moe, Larry & Curly in
The Farelly Brothers' big screen version of
The Three Stooges. Talks have said to have been held. That's quite a come down from A-listers
Sean Penn (Larry)
Jim Carrey (Curly) and
Benicio Del Toro (Moe) who were previously attached to this thing before MGM's financial woes halted the production on more than one occasion and they bailed. The slapstick comedy has since changed hands to Fox and with a March 14th start date ever looming, I guess the new backers have to take what they can get casting wise. And it certainly sends out a signal that Fox's Stooges will be going in a different direction to MGM's, skewing much younger with a cheaper cast who will bring their respective humour from the
Jackass franchise and
Saturday Night Live into the fray. Even a few laughs from down under! The PG, family friendly goofball will be an anthology picture of three short 27 minute physical comedy segments, using all three signature songs that according to the Farrellys will be more will be
non-stop slapping, more in the tone of
Dumb and Dumber than anything else weve done.
Deadline previously stated that The picture takes place when the trio are dumped out as newborns at the door of an orphanage, and follows them to adulthood and is very much in the spirit of the original shorts, in which the blue collar bumblers got the best of the wealthy society matrons that tried to exploit them.... they are talking with
Richard Jenkins to play the head nun who is terrorized by the precocious Stooges. There's no further update yet on Jenkins. What do you make of the potential new cast?