The Farrellys Reimagineer The Three Stooges

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are going to make a new Three Stooges movie at MGM after five years of development hell at Warner Bros., due out late 2009.

If you’re a fan of comedy, that sentence will provoke a very strong reaction, likely along the lines of “intense and miserable feelings of dread.” It is difficult, nay perhaps even impossible to imagine anyone adequately stepping into the shoes of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard and the brand of goofball slapstick yuksterism they pioneered so perfectly. Seriously, can you imagine Greg Kinnear, Matt Damon and Anthony Anderson smacking each other around and getting the same kind of laughs? True, the rumor has it that the only big-name would be Moe while Curly is to be cast through a nationwide “American Idol” style search, but there’s still just a strong feeling of “wrong” about the whole enterprise. Even more wrong if the “Curly Search” is turned into some kind of televised reality nonsense.