The Farrelly brothers are making it. An American Idol-like search will be conducted to cast Curly, who is said to be the most physically gifted of the Stooges.

Although I've never been a huge fan of the Stooges, I do understand that they're cultural icons, and from that perspective, I wonder if the Stooges are truly divorceable from the actors who played them. Unlike characters like Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Zorro, Doctor Who, etc., who've been successfully played by many actors, I wonder if the Stooges cannot be separated from Moe and Curly Howard and Larry Fine, and if any attempt to do a remake will be bereft from the true essence of the characters, and result in a box office disappointment, as the Honeymooners remake did. Then again, for some time I felt the same about the Original Star Trek cast, and it seems that Abrams just may be able to pull off that remake.

I also wonder if the very nature of the Stooges' comedy is culturally dated, and not translatable into a 2009 film for similar reasons. For some time, I felt that a good idea for a TOS remake would've been to do it animated, with good voice impressionists to duplicate the voices of the actors no longer available or interested, and I mean really good animation like in some of those Japanese mecha cartoons, and not with stylized caricature-like renderings of the characters. I wonder if that would be best for the Stooges as well.

Oh well. Time will tell.

Will Sasso, Hank Azaria and James Marsen to play the trio?