There’s been a lot of movement surrounding the Farrelly Brothers’ remake of “The Three Stooges,” starting last year when the project moved from MGM to Fox, getting a fresh cast (Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro were attached in the long-gestating earlier incarnation). Just last month, Johnny Knoxville was supposed to have Moe nailed down, but that turned out to be just a rumor. But the first cast member has now been locked down. EW reports that Will Sasso has officially been cast as Curly (recent reports pegged him as Moe).
Funnyman Sasso is relatively unknown, but he currently stars on “$#*! My Dad Says” and was also one of the funniest members of “MADtv” back in the day. He has recently starred in feature films including small roles in last years “Life As We Know It” and the upcoming “Arthur” remake. For the remaining roles, Deadline reports that the frontrunners for Moe and Larry are Hank Azaria and James Marsden, respectively. No official offers have been made yet, but if the Farrelly Brothers want to start filming within the month, they’ll need to lock those guys down soon.
Peter Farrelly told Deadline that he was “opening up these roles to the world right now. We’ll make it with the best possible people. Our feeling is that no star is too big to audition and no matter who it is, we’re going to have to see him in the role.” About the film itself, he goes on to say, “There will be non-stop slapping, more in the tone of ‘Dumb and Dumber’ than anything else we’ve done. Our goal is 85 minutes of laughs in a film that will be very respectful of who the Stooges were. It’s by far the riskiest project we’ve ever done, without question, but it is also the one closest to our hearts.”
Hopefully this time the cast will stick, as the concept of plopping the three brothers in modern-day society and tracking them through three short films sounds intriguing. It would be nice to bring back those slapstick gags for a younger audience (and for the older audience who remembers them).