Penn, Carrey Stooges?

You may have heard the rumors but if you’re like me, you didn’t really think they would pan out. But somehow they have. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are set to star in THE THREE STOOGES for the Farrelly Brothers and they’re bringing Jim Carrey with them. Del Toro will star as Moe, Penn will star as Larry and Carrey will gain 40 lbs to star as Curly. And I swear this is not an early April Fools gag.

As I mentioned, both Penn and Del Toro had been rumored as possibilities (as had Russell Crowe at one point) but Carrey’s name never came up (at least anywhere that I heard). Penn had reportedly been studying with voiceman Billy West (who did an amazing Larry Fine back on the “Howard Stern Show”) to get his voice down. As Variety notes, it would be Penn’s first comedy since 1989 and a surprising one giving his recent Oscar win for MILK.

Now that the cast is set, the Farrelly brothers will fine tune the script and look to have production underway this fall for MGM. As previously mentioned, this project won’t be a biopic but rather a comedy very much the way the Three Stooges would have made a comedy back in their day.