Ok, so things started out bad enough when rumors began surfacing about a biography of the Three Stooges. Especially when we ran across a quote from the screenwriters/directors of the project stating that the movie was to be “not a biopic, but rather a comedy built around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.” Oh, and that quote? Yeah, it was from the Farrelly Brothers… you know, the high-class crowd that gave us Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, and are currently attached to the movie version of the children’s book Walter the Farting Dog. (Amazon link provided only so you know that I am NOT making that one up. Oh, and just in case you think I’m kidding about there being a movie version, here’s the IMDB entry for it.)

Of course, the more I think about it, with qualifications like that, maybe they ARE the right ones to make a pic about the Stooges. Still, today from Variety comes word that the cast for the movie is now pretty well set, or at least as far as the main trio is concerned. So, you ask, who are the three? How about Benicio Del Toro as Moe, Jim Carrey as Curly (reportedly he’s agreed to gain 40 pounds for the role) and Sean Penn as Larry.

Let’s run over that one more time… Benicio Del Toro (who just finished playing Che Guevara in Che and is in post production now on Universal’s new interpretation of the Wolfman) as Moe. Jim Carrey (alright, I’ll admit in some ways he’s been prepping for this role all his life, but at the same time I’m not sure he’s proven he can play anyone except Jim Carrey when it comes to comedies… dramatic roles, I’ll grant you he’s gained my respect… but that’s a “whole ‘nother thing”…) as Curley. And Sean Penn (personally I suspect the man had a funnybone-ectomy after playing Spicoli) as Larry.

Gee, maybe if we get lucky they can get Hugh Jackman to play Shemp and Leonardo DiCaprio to play Curly Joe.

Here’s one for loyal moosehead RW:

Ok, so we put Jason back into his proper millieu, bit it looks like a number of our stories today actually involve other characters escaping theirs. Of course, most readers under a certain age will only know The Three Stooges from seeing their shorts on TV. However most of those shorts were actually first shot to be shown in theaters before the main feature. Therefore, when a proposal was made in 1949 for a weekly series starring the three numbskulls, it actually was a new and different idea. Could they sustain the hilarity on a weekly basis? Would the audience go for it? What exactly would the premise of the show be?

Mark Evanier provides some insight:

In 1949, The Three Stooges did a pilot for a weekly TV series that was to be called either The Three Stooges Show or Jerks of All Trades. The premise was that each week, they’d screw up in a different profession, which seems like a stretch to me. I mean, the Stooges being incompetent? Come on.

The pilot was done live in front of an audience and then the kinescope was shopped around to buyers. (Do I need to explain what a kinescope was? Basically, it was a way to record a live TV show in the days before tape. They’d point a 16mm camera at a TV monitor and film the show off the screen.)

There were no takers for the Stooges’ project, which seems odd. In ‘49, most of television was a lot worse than this. Take a look and see what you think. It runs a little less than twenty minutes.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not the biggest Stooges fan, but considering how popular they have been through the years, I agree with Mr. E that this seems kind of a no-brainer. Ah, well there’s definitely no accounting for the tastes and judgement of TV programmers and this just goes to show that that’s not a recent devlopment…