Why I oughta'...

Paul Giamatti is currently in talks to replace the recently absent Sean Penn in the Farrelly Brothers upcoming comedy The Three Stooges.

According to the The Boston Globe, Giamatti, who was fantastic in Duplicity, will pick up the role of the fluffy-headed Larry. Benicio Del Toro and Jim Carrey are on the hook to play Moe and Curly, respectively.

Penn exited the project to spend more time with the family.

The Three Stooges was originally set up with original Stooge shorts producer Columbia, until rights holder C3 Entertainment Inc. sold the film rights to Warner Bros. for the Farrelly brothers to direct in 2001. MGM later obtained the rights along with the Farrelly’s services.

The Farrelly’s script, which Bobby Farrelly referred to as Dumb, Dumber & Dumbest, was originally plotted out as a series of four shorts. The story was eventually changed to a full-length feature.

Sean Penn wants to go home.

Sean Penn, acclaimed actor and recent Oscar winner for his performance in Milk, decided to throw the career on pause for a moment and go back home for awhile. Dropping out of two high profile movies, Cartel and The Three Stooges, his personal life will be in peace but these projects will not. The first of the two projects, The Three Stooges, is a Farrelly brothers piece that has been in development for years and got off the ground big time when they nabbed their cast in late March. Now with the sudden loss of one of their main actors, and the oncoming filming date set for the end of the summer, the Farrelly brothers must scramble to fill up the slot of stooge Larry in time or fear for loosing other actors due to production push.

The second flick to hit the breaks is Asger Leth’s Cartel, a crime drama that follows a man who journeys to protect his son after his wife is murdered by Mexican drug cartels (The Hollywood Reporter). Now that Penn jumped off the feature, Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures are on the hunt for another lead.

MGM decided to finally get their little ducks in a row and are going full steam ahead with their latest upcoming film, The Three Stooges. The famed trio, recently announced, will be Sean Penn (Milk), Benicio Del Toro (Che) and Jim Carrey (Yes Man). Despite what you all are thinking right now, no it is not a biopic, I’m sorry to disappoint. The story will be set in modern times, still maintaining the typical Stooges slapstick comedy.

Penn, Carrey and Del Toro?

For those of you who did not know, there was actually a biopic for the Stooges made for TV revolving around Moe, the leader of the group, back in 2000.

Bob and Peter Farrelly (The Heartbreak Kid) will be producing, writing and directing the latest comedy coming from their great arsenal of films. Originally the film was due to be four separate short flicks, but putting it together for the big screen means they’ll have to squeeze the four into one for us all to see. Within the story, there is rumor that one scene will have to do with them being in an orphanage when they were kids (special effects for this scene?). The rumored release date is November 20th but that is subject to change depending on what all sorts of happenings go on with the MGM flick.