"The Three Stooges" Making a Comeback?

“The Three Stooges” might be coming to movie screens soon. Yep, new Stooges, based on the old ones.

MGM, which showcased the funny guys dating back to the 1930s, is in the process of acquiring the film rights to the Stooges from Warner Bros., which has been developing a feature project for years.

And the Farrelly Brothers (pictured) would be the perfect team to do it. They’re attached to write and direct the project, for a possible release date of November 2009. I know some people have poo-poo’d them in recent years, but I’m still a fan. “Shallow Hal” was a great movie, and I liked “Fever Pitch” and “The Heartbreak Kid,” too. 

More after the jump…

“The Three Stooges are a timeless staple of comedy,” said MGM chairman Mary Parent. “And when we heard what the Farrellys had in mind, we knew it was time for Larry, Moe and Curly to return to the big screen.” Couldn’t agree more.

The Farrellys’ screenplay breaks the feature into four 20-minute shorts, to mirror the format from the 1930s. The first episode establishes the boisterous brothers as 7-year-old castoffs who terrorize the nun-run orphanage that takes them in. Eventually forced to leave, Moe (the hostile leader), Larry (the jokey sidekick) and Curly (the childlike dimwit) try to find a place for themselves in a modern world.

No word yet on who would star, but names bandied about over the years have included Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson, a Stooges expert who exec-produced an ABC TV movie about them in 2000.

What do you think about this? Good idea to bring the Stooges to the big screen again?

Image: The Farrelly Brothers, There’s Something About Mary, 20th Century Fox Film Corp., 1998