The Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges movie, which was once set to star Jim Carrey, Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Penn, before Sean Penn Haiti’d the entire project, just released its first official image, with replacement cast Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Sean Hayes. So… What do you think? I mean, I don’t want to start bashing this thing before I’ve seen any of it, but isn’t this a little weird? Trying to mimick the original Three Stooges clothes and haircuts seems a little like sticking a guy in a black turtleneck and pretending he’s George Carlin. It’d be fine for a dramatization of Carlin’s life, but it seems like it’d be asking a lot for us to laugh at his Carlin-esque jokes.
Even the Stooges, when when it was Larry, Moe, and Shemp, or Larry, Moe, and Joe Besser, they didn’t really try to make you think you were watching the same lineup (they sort of did with Curly Joe, but even then it was a little different). Even if it’s really funny, it’s seems like it’s going to be hard for people to get past the basic cognitive dissonance of going, “Hey! Those aren’t the Stooges!” But then, what do I know, I’m just a pampered debutante.
The comedy is not a biopic but instead is shot in three segments in the style of their film shorts from the ’30s and ’40s and places the trio in contemporary times as they struggle to save the orphanage where they were raised. The Farrellys, known for R-rated ribaldry, have vowed to keep the humor at a PG level. But with Larry David as a vindictive nun, an appearance by the kids of The Jersey Shore and even that hunky Old Spice guy in the cast, the slapstick should still run amok. [USA Today]
“Wait, so you’re telling me it’s going to be a contemporary orphanage run by nuns?”
“Right! And, the cast of Jersey Shore will be there!”
“…Check, please.”