Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: Farrelly Brothers To Direct Three Stooges Movie

Ouch.

Variety reports that the Bobby and Peter Farrelly are set to make their long-awaited Three Stooges movie. The comedic brothers have been working on the script for five years at Warner Brothers but now have a new home for it at MGM. They have a real live release date and everything, November 20, 2009, so it looks like it’s going to happen.

Let’s let Peter Farrelly himself explain the plan:

“It’s not a biopic. It takes place in present day, and they look, dress and sound exactly like the Stooges. When the economy started turning, we felt like the world could use a Stooges slapfest. Bobby and I haven’t done a real physical comedy in a while, and it’s the most exciting thing we could think of now, to have people go to the movie, see some great slapstick fun family humor.”

Casting plans? Well, how about you? That is if you’re a man with good physical comedy skills who doesn’t mind being knocked around a bit. Apparently they’re planning to conduct an American Idol type talent search for the role of Curly, with auditions in three or four cities, and a finalist chosen in Los Angeles. In addition, contests will be held to find comedy shorts to precede the film, which itself will be structured as a set of three loosely connected shorts.

Peter Farrelly is right that hard-core fans won’t be happy no matter what they do. I like the idea of doing just silly, slapstick comedy, but don’t love the idea of trying to glom onto the Three Stooges name. I’d almost rather see them create a new comedy trio that’s in the spirit of the Stooges, but without the names and a new style. But nevertheless, it’s something for families to look forward to next Thanksgiving, when families reach that point in the holiday where they all really need to get away from each other.