It’s been a long process trying to get the Farelly’s Three Stooges biopic together, with the bizarre but incredible teaming of Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro falling apart a year or so ago, and more recent rumours that Johnny Knoxville would play Moe not turning into anything solis.
However now they’ve found one of their Stooges. A couple of weeks ago it was rumoured MadTV and Shit My Dad Says star Will Sasso was up for a role, and now the deal has been inked and he’s set to play Curly. It perhaps one of the more dramatic roles, as Curly suffered a stroke and was succeeded by his brother Samuel (Shemp). After Shemp died suddenly, he was replaced by Joe Besser, who gave way to the vaudeville vet Joe De Rita.
As yet no one is set in the parts of Larry and Moe, with Peter Farrelly telling Deadline that they’re, “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. This is not The Flintstones. You’ve got to be Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard, and that could be a major movie star or an unknown.”
However an update to Deadline’s story says that the current frontrunners are Hank Azaria as stern disciplinarian Moe and James Marsden as simpleton Larry. It does seem odd that X-Men’s cyclops might be a stooge, but he proves adept at comedy in Enchanted, and will soon be seen in Hop (as will Hank Azaria, for that matter). There should be firmer casting news on these roles soon.