Humorless Oscar winner Sean Penn announced today that he’s dropping out of two high profile projects – MGM’s THREE STOOGES remake and Universal’s crime thriller CARTEL. He’s decided to take a break from Hollywood for the foreseeable future in order to spend more time with his family. What does this mean for the two films? Universal has decided to move forward with CARTEL without Penn. Asger Leth is on board to direct with Peter Craig still working on the script about a man whose wife is murdered by Mexican drug lords. As for the STOOGES, MGM had already slated it for a 2010 release with a late August start date so it’s in their and the Farrelly brothers (who are directing the film) interest to re-cast, especially considering delaying things until Penn has spent enough time with his family could mean losing Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro, who had already signed on as Curly and Moe, respectively. For now, we’ll only be able to see Penn in Terrence Malick’s TREE OF LIFE and Doug Liman’s FAIR GAME.
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