Three Stooges Shake-Up: Giamatti In, Carrey Out?

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 10th, 2009

In June, Sean Penn announced he was taking at least a year off from Hollywood to spend time with his family.  His departure immediately put two projects in jeopardy:  Cartel and The Three Stooges.  The first, a Mafia drama, is still scrambling for a new lead.  The latter is a Farrelly brothers comedy once filled with the town’s top talent, except now they’re looking for a new Larry and Curly.

The Boston Globe is reporting Oscar-nominee Paul Giamatti is not only up for the role of Larry, but he has already signed according to co-director Peter Farrelly.  The director was in Boston for a Red Sox game and dropped the bomb on the paper last Friday.  No official confirmation from MGM.

However, this may end up being news to Giamatti.  After Bobby Farrelly said he would make a “sensational Larry” in June, Giamatti’s representation denied the connection and said the parties hadn’t even discussed it.  Giamatti later told the Boston Herald he was “warming up to the idea.”

The Globe continues, reporting Jim Carrey is no longer attached as Curly.  The comedy actor was supposedly gaining 40 lbs. to play the character, but for unknown reasons is no longer involved.

This only leaves one original cast member, Benicio Del Toro as Moe.  He’ll flip ya, he’ll flip ya for real.

The Farrelly brothers have been trying to get a Stooges comedy going for almost a decade.  They invested years of preparation before announcing it in 2003.  After five years of development delays with Warner Bros, the bros moved it over to MGM where they started drawing up outrageous wish lists.

I’ll have more details as they come in.  Though hopefully this movie and these rumors will be hit with a frying pan and put out of their misery.