The Farrelly Brothers Three Stooges movie has had a tumultuous development period, with many big name stars attached to the roles of the comedy threesome.
At one point, Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio del Toro were linked with the movie, and only last week the rumour mill was suggesting that Johnny Knoxville, Andy Samberg and Australian comic Shane Jacobson had nabbed the roles of Moe, Larry and Curly.
Well, now Peter Farrelly has spoken out, denying that any casting has actually happened yet: "You don't want people to think 'they've already cast that thing', because we haven't. It's wide open to anybody."
He went on to say that he is a fan of Knoxville and Samberg, but that neither actor has even auditioned, let alone nabbed a role, adding "Right now, I don't know. There's no leader in the clubhouse."
On Sean Penn's departure from the project, Farrelly said: "Sean wanted to do it and when Sean wanted to do it, everyone wanted to do it. But he is extremely involved in Haiti right now."
"We heard that if we waited a couple of years, we could probably get him, but we've already waited a few years."
The film will apparently be a three-act fictional comedy, rather than a straight biopic. The three acts will be standalone stories, with the second two set in the present day, and the first examining the Stooges as kids.
Farrelly added: "It's The Three Stooges just like the [old shorts]. They're going to look the same, dress the same, sound the same, act the same, with the same sound effects."
"I don't want somebody's version of Moe, it's not like Batman where you can have your own take on Batman."
Sounds like a potentially strange take on the material, and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
After all, no matter how dreamy the cast, are they really going to be able to compete with the original Stooges?
