When it comes to fantastical holiday-skewing comedies hitting the 2024 movie schedule, the big-budget romp Red One (read our review) has garnered the most ad time, but no one should be ignoring Jack Black’s reuniting with Shallow Hal’s Bobby and Peter Farrelly for the high-concept new streaming movie Dear Santa. The film marks the brothers’ first partnership on a feature film since 2014’s Dumb & Dumber To, which sparked questions about sequels to some of their biggest hits, including There’s Something About Mary.

When speaking to Variety about working with Jack Black’s Satan in their most recent comedy, the duo were asked about potential follow-ups to their past efforts, and Peter Farrelly admitted that he’s in some ways always preparing to return to the lives of Jeff Daniels’ Harry Dunne and Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas. As he put it:

To his point, Dumb and Dumber remains one of the most memorable comedies of the 1990s, as well as a career highlight for Jim Carrey, though neither the brothers’ sequel Dumb and Dumber To nor the Farrelly-free prequel Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd came anywhere close to matching the original film’s dimwitted whimsy.

Bobby Farrelly went even further and said they’d even be down to wait another decade before doing it just so it’d match up with their past effort. In his words:

For whatever reason, I do think it would be a strange kind of joy to witness Harry and Lloyd still stumbling through life's foibles while in their 60s. But not before I'd want to see Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller return to the big screen as the bubbly Mary Jensen and the eternally cringe-bound Ted Stroehmann, respectively.

Hopes For There's Something About Mary Sequel

After addressing the potential for a return to the IQ-deficient world of Dumb and Dumber, Bobby Farrelly brought up their 1998 box office juggernaut There's Something About Mary, which scored nearly $370 million at the box office on a $23 million budget. Not to mention winning over both critics and audiences with its charmingly lowbrow gags.

In a world where The Hangover sparked two sequels, it's a wonder Mary never went on to headline a second film. But it turns out that could still feasably happen if the perfect idea struck. According to Bobby Farrelly:

So if anyone out there assumed that the lack of There's Something About Mary sequels is due to the filmmaker siblings not caring about the characters, put that worry to rest. It turns out that we technically could have had a second film at any point in the past 26 years, had one or both of the brothers conceived a narrative that would justify all the work that would go into getting the cast back together.

Of course, that's something of a tall order itself, though perhaps not quite as difficult now as it would have been even a decade ago. Since 2014, Cameron Diaz was more or less retired from acting, and only returned to Hollywood relatively recently for upcoming projects like the Jamie Foxx action comedy Back in Action and the animated sequel Shrek 5. Ben Stiller is also not as prolific a performer these days as he is a director and producer, though he still gets in front of the camera on occasion, and will be doing so for another long-awaited '90s comedy sequel, Happy Gilmore 2.

Whether or not we ever actually get to hang out with Ted and Mary again, with or without specially concocted hairgel products, at least we can still look back on the original and giggle between tugging awkwardly at our collars. And don't forget to check out Jack Black's devlishly fun performance as Satan in Paramount+'s Dear Santa, which is now streaming.

Jack Black isn’t for the faint of heart. He’s funny and outlandish, and not afraid to show it on screen, and it does make some of Black's best movies even better. As he’s continued in Hollywood, including being a part of the 2024 movie release schedule, he’s had plenty of roles across genres and has proven himself in all of them. So when the opportunity arose to play Satan in a Christmas comedy movie he leaped at the chance, especially with the Farrelly brothers at the helm.

Yes, that's the Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who made some of the best comedies of the '90s, the height arguably being Dumb and Dumber. The two had been on a brief hiatus from working on projects together throughout the mid-2000s and 2010s for personal reasons. Their first reunion in over a decade has brought a long-standing script to life, and when talking with EW, they shared why the Nacho Libre actor was the perfect pick. They said of Black and the responsibility of making a funny Christmas movie:

When the School of Rock star received the script, he knew immediately he had to play the part. Jack Black dressed up in his own interpretation of what the character may look like and sent it to the Farrellys, and it became the blueprint of what we’ll see in the movie. The cast has some great talents, including Keegan Michael Key and Post Malone.

Dear Santa revolves around a classic tradition gone wrong–Liam Turner (Robert Timothy Smith) spells Santa’s name as Satan, and thus, brings Jack Black’s jolly devilish Satan to life. The movie is described as family-friendly with some Farrelly edge (not as edgy as Bad Santa, though) for children to watch if approved by parents/guardians. Note that if they still do believe in the big red guy, you may want them to skip this and offer them one of the best animated Christmas movies instead.

The Farrelly brothers’ Dear Santa will be available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription starting November 25th. If you’d like to get a head start on the season, check out our 25 best Christmas movies list to get ready for the brothers’ festive return to the big screen. I think it’s safe to say that for fans of The Super Mario Bros. alum, we’re as excited to see him take on this twisted holiday flick.

In recent years, Hollywood has been having a larger conversation about what needs to change when it comes to representation of minorities from all walks of life. There has certainly been a lot of moves in the right direction, such as the 2023 Academy Awards honoring Everything Everywhere All At Once over the weekend, a movie especially important to the Asian-American community. Another example is 2022 being a big year for Native American diversity on television. There are so many facets of diversity to be explored, including for segments of the disabled community, which is in the forefront of the basketball comedy Champions. 

The 2023 new movie release is a remake of the Spanish movie with the same name and premise. Champions revolves around a minor-league basketball coach, in this case played by Woody Harrelson, who gets kicked out of his job and finds himself doing community service for a local basketball team made up of people with disabilities. When CinemaBlend spoke to the movie’s director, Bobby Farrelly, he shared the process of representing people with a range of developmental disabilities in the movie. In his words: 

It’s incredible to see a movie like Champions casting numerous actors who happen to have disabilities with authentic roles that showcase more representation on the big screen. But, as the director shared, so many of the “hundreds” of actors they auditioned had never booked a job prior to Champions coming along. Farrelly shared a fun story while explaining the audition process further. As he continued:  

Casey Metcalfe plays Marlon in Champions, and is part of the team of basketball players called “The Friends” Woody Harrelson’s character coaches in the film. Metcalfe, who has autism, is among many who found their first movie credit with Champions despite a long history as an actor. Metcalfe began acting with a troupe called Actors for Autism back in 2004 in Los Angeles and was featured in the 2009 documentary Kids With Cameras. 

Metcalfe shared with his local news outlet Seven Days in a recent interview that he believes Champions is a “giant step forward for the developmentally disabled community” and shared his belief that it’s “society” that makes him and others feel not included. He hopes the movie will be a “turning point” for the community. 

In recent years, we are seeing more storylines around people with autism in particular have stereotypes challenged, including the Netflix dating show Love On The Spectrum. It’s great to see Champions also do so for big screen audiences. Champions is now playing in theaters, and you can check out our interview with Woody Harrelson about the movie as well here on CinemaBlend. 

Bobby and Peter Farrelly have been joined at the hip since 1994 — cinematically speaking, of course. Their first film together was with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber, and they’ve since gone on to direct eleven feature films together. But is it finally time for them to cut the chord and set out to make waves on their own?

We wonder, because Bobby has signed on to direct his first movie without his big brother. As reported by The Wrap, he will helm a comedy called One Night Stan, which was something that both brothers were originally attached to. Though, Peter is at least working on it as an executive producer. The story is also very Farrelly Brothers-esque: Stan, known for his one-night stands, finally considers settling down when he falls in love with a woman named Amy, but she too "has her own ideas about relationships."

According to a statement from Bobby, he’s really excited about the script and thinks casting will be a lot of fun, but does this have implications for the future of the Farrelly Brothers’ directing work? It’s still unclear why Peter -- who was said to also be attached as a director -- decided to pass up his duties in favor of a producing credit. While this will mark Bobby’s first time on his own, Peter did direct parts of that god-awful Movie 43 before reteaming with his bro for Dumb and Dumber To. So perhaps this is just a one-off for Bobby, and the pair will think of something great to work on together farther down the road.

The sequel to their first movie ever did pretty well at the box office, despite that horrible prequel, Dumb and Dumberer, that preceded it (and included neither the Farrelly Brothers nor the original cast). After all the years together making Kingpin, There’s Something About Mary, Me, Myself & Irene, Osmosis Jones, Shallow Hal, Stuck On You, Fever Pitch, the remake of The Heartbreak Kid, Hall Pass and that Three Stooges movie that was pretty bad, we’d be hard-pressed to see this streak end, despite its long run.

Both brothers recently appeared on EW’s new web series Lightbulb, and in the midst of the conversation they revealed some of their secrets to getting the laughs out of audiences. However, based on their comments about fighting for which lines are best for which story, their mojo seems to stem from their collaborative environment. While Bobby will have Peter to some extent on One Night Stan, it’ll be mostly be him fighting to maintain his vision. All things have to come to an end at some point, so perhaps it’s a good thing that Bobby is now starting to create a life separate from Peter. As his big brother told EW, "If you’re not scared, you’re not inspired."

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the recently released Dumb and Dumber To. If you haven’t seen the movie and wish to remain ignorant of the details, please click away to another one of our wonderful articles on the website.

The end credits of Dumb and Dumber To is a nice treat for fans, as those who have spent years loving the adventures of Harry and Lloyd are treated to a fun little trip down memory lane that sees footage from the new movie juxtaposed against footage from the old. Sweet as those moments are, however, the big show comes at the very end of the credits, which features one last big cameo and a semi-ridiculous promise for the future.

For those who didn’t see the movie, allow me to set the scene: Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) have completed their adventure and are driving along the highway in their personal Zamboni, when we suddenly get a look at the man who is driving the truck behind them… and it’s none other than Cam Neely a.k.a. Sea Bass! That’s right – it turns out that the trucker has spent 20 years looking to get revenge against the guys who threw a salt shaker at him, tried to scam him for a lunch, and left him unconscious in a bathroom stall. It all comes to an end with a very special title card announcing that Dumb and Dumber For will be coming to theaters in 2034, or, in other words, in another 20 years from now.

Those of you who have been following the news in recent weeks know that this isn’t the first time that the idea of a third Dumb and Dumber has come up – though the idea of calling it Dumb and Dumber For is just as genius if not even more so than the name Dumb and Dumber To. Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly have been saying that if there is further interest in the characters that they would be interested in seeing them come back yet again for another sequel, and the end credits gag is their semi-promise to get the film made in the future. There does appear to be some demand for it, as despite the second movie getting a B- CinemaScore, it also handily took first place in its opening weekend, scoring a nice $38 million.

If Dumb and Dumber For were to happen, what would it actually be about? I’d say that it would be about the revenge of Sea Bass, but I think we can all agree that keeping that chase going for another 20 years might be a tad ridiculous. That aside, Jeff Daniels will be 79 years old in 2034, and Jim Carrey will be 72, and one can imagine that the two actors’ ages would have a considerable impact on how another Dumb and Dumber sequel would operate (presumably it wouldn’t be putting the two men back out on the open road together). We can’t say what shenanigans they’ll get up to, but there is one thing that we can be certain of: the characters won’t change at all.

Do you think you’ll be interested in seeing Dumb and Dumber For in 2034, after another 20 years have passed? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

It’s been over 15 years since Seinfeld left the airwaves, and it remains at the center of a multitude of TV conversations. One of the series’ best episodes from its early years is Season 4’s “The Virgin,” known for being one of the first things that directors Bobby and Peter Farrelly did before breaking into Hollywood with Dumb and Dumber and the rest of their comedy career. Only they might have had a little less to do with the episode than history and Wikipedia are telling us.

For a Reddit AMA promoting the long-gestating sequel Dumb and Dumber To, both Farrelly brothers shared a lot of insightful info about their comedic resume, and the topic of “The Virgin” indeed came up. Here’s their explanation behind their “story” credit, and what kind of an audience Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are.

I’m guessing they sold the idea of Jerry dating a virgin and how that could have ramifications for his personal life. “The Virgin” was the slightly risqué appetizer to the masterful masturbation episode “The Contest,” and featured Julia Louis-Dreyfuss doing some of her best “Elaine infringing on Jerry’s life” acting, by inadvertently getting Marla (Jane Leeves) off of the idea of having Jerry be her first fully sexual partner. Here’s a clip of Elaine’s unbashful small talk.

Having someone talk on an and about a diaphragm seems like just the right kind of subject matter for the Farrelly brothers, who are of course the men responsible for cinema’s greatest diarrhea scene and “sperm as hairgel” scene. (Not to mention Kingpin’s vomit-inducing post-sex scene.) “The Virgin” also had a great exchange between Jerry and George where the latter figures out Susan is his girlfriend because he has Tampax at his house. There’s all kinds of slightly risqué-for-1992 stuff here.

I, for one, would love to see Bobby and Peter Farrelly getting into TV again in a much larger capacity. More so if the stoic and unlaughing Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are involved. How about you guys?

When it comes to making sequels, Hollywood is pretty good at pumping them out within five years of the original - but some take a tad bit longer to get made. Dumb and Dumber To falls into the latter category. The film is arriving in theaters on Friday nearly a full 20 years after the first film came out in 1994. In cases like this, where the original stars and filmmakers are involved, one if forced to wonder how the idea of doing a sequel came up in the first place. Well, it turns out you can thank the fact that Dumb and Dumber plays regularly on cable television.

The question of where Dumb and Dumber To found its footing was recently asked by a fan during a Reddit AMA with directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, and the filmmakers provided an interesting answer. Apparently the story goes all the way back to circa 2009, when Jim Carrey found himself in front of a television set while traveling. Wrote the Peter Farrelly,

While that may have been the inception of the project, the five year gap between then and now is a perfect illustration of the fact that the sequel had a rocky road ahead of it to production. It wasn't until late 2011 - when the Farrellys were finishing work on The Three Stooges - that the two directors began to get serious about making the Dumb and Dumber sequel... and then they hit all kinds of behind the scenes problems. Due to perceived lack of enthusiasm on the part of Warner Bros. and New Line, Jim Carrey publically declared that he was walking away from the project in summer 2012 - and he was followed by Jeff Daniels. It was on again-off again for the next year, and then Warner Bros. cut ties completely - but that just led Universal to come in and scoop up the movie for development, production, and distribution. And now it's almost here!

Set 20 years after the original, Dumb and Dumber To once again finds Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) on a cross-country adventure - only this time there are life-threatening stakes. Harry is in need of a kidney transplant, and the only person who can help him is the daughter he never knew he had with Fraida Felcher (Kathleen Turner). Unfortunately, their journey leads them to cross paths with his daughter's adopted mother (Laurie Holden) and her lover (Rob Riggle), who plan to use Harry and Lloyd in their own nefarious plot. Look for it in theaters this weekend.

Jeff Daniels clearly had a great time re-teaming with Jim Carrey for Dumb And Dumber To because the actor has admitted that he would be game to sign up for Dumb And Dumber 3 instantly.

Jeff Daniels made the announcement at the premiere for Dumb And Dumber To on Monday night. After walking down the red-carpet with Jim Carrey in matching Tom Ford power blue and orange suits, Daniels was asked by Variety if he would ever consider returning for another addition to the comedy franchise. And his answer will have fans of the original salivating in anticipation once again.

Jeff Daniels wasn’t the only one who teased that a third Dumb And Dumber film could already be in the pipeline. Peter Farrelly, who alongside his brother, Bobby, wrote and directed the original 1994 comedy and its sequel, also declared his interest in revisiting the characters at a later date too. However he did admit that a potential third film would only happen if Dumb And Dumber To is successful. Said the filmmaker,

The main problem – one would image – is Jim Carrey. It took a number of years to convince the beloved comedian to return for Dumb And Dumber To, and getting him to come back for a third instalment as Lloyd Christmas could prove to be impossible. In June 2012, just under a year after the Farrelly brothers had confirmed that they were planning on making a sequel to Dumb And Dumber, Carrey pulled out. This was because Warner Bros. had shown very little enthusiasm for the film, and he believed that it wouldn’t be given a fair shot by the studio. This then forced Jeff Daniels to withdraw as well, as he would only return as long as Jim Carrey was involved. Ultimately, Warner Bros. decided not to proceed with the picture, and after a little bit of a legal dispute, Red Granite decided to finance the sequel with Universal Pictures distributing. And Jim Carrey found himself on board once again.

Reviews for the film have yet to fully materialize, but each of the trailers and clips for the follow-up indicate that once again Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey are as delightfully stupid and ridiculous as before. Plus there are plenty of laughs in there that suggest it should be funny enough.

However it turns out you can’t help but raise a smile when you see Jeff Daniels and Jim Carrey in the same shot together. And as long as Dumb And Dumber To is adequate then I’m all for another follow-up.

We live in a time when dream projects talked up by various stars for years actually, somehow become a reality. A new season of Arrested Development currently exists. A Veronica Mars movie has started production. A new trailer just dropped for Anchorman 2, a movie that at one point had been completely killed by its studio.

So even though we spent years shrugging off the Farrelly Brothers' suggestions that they wanted to make an honest-to-God Dumb & Dumber sequel, we really should have expected it when it started to become real. But, like Anchorman 2 before it, Dumb & Dumber To had some major hurdles to get past, from Jim Carrey bailing to, most recently, the studio dropping it. Even when that last blow fell it seemed obvious that the film could come back to life, and now, the indefatigable Harry and Lloyd have risen again. According to Peter and Bobby Farrelly themselves, via Twitter, Universal Pictures has come to their rescue:

The Red Granite Pictures in question is a relatively new outfit that has already been behind several starry productions, including the indie comedy Friends With Kids and the upcoming Out of the Furnace, which stars Christian Bale and Casey Affleck. They're also responsible for Martin Scorsese's completely insane-looking The Wolf of Wall Street, which ought to be enough proof that the Red Granite people have good case. Of course, the Dumb & Dumber sequel is likely to be entirely about bad taste, reuniting Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels to act as stupid as possible, and convincing millions of otherwise reasonable people to laugh anyway. I had thought for a while that Dumb & Dumber was the kind of thing people my age liked because we were all kids in 1994 and it was right up our alley. Turns out, it really holds up. The Farrelly Brothers at their best really do know how to make people laugh at the best nonsense.

Rumor had it nearly a year ago that the film would follow Harry and Lloyd on yet another adventure, this time trying to hunt down one of their children who's in need of a kidney. But don't worry-- even though it's 20 years later, "There is no growth out of either one of them." With the wheels on this thing finally, officially moving, we will likely be seeing some casting and a whole lot of other details emerging shortly. It's hard to believe, but Dumb & Dumber To is really going to happen. At least, until the next stumbling block totally destroys it again. One or the other.

It looked like all of the pieces were finally in place. Following the disastrous Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, a real sequel to the great 1994 comedy Dumb & Dumber was finally coming together with both Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels attached to reprise their roles as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne and both Peter and Bobby Farrelly handling director duties. But now the project has hit a serious speed bump.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has decided to drop the in-development project from their slate, leaving the Farrellys to try and shop the property to other studios. The stars are apparently still set to reunite as Lloyd and Harry, and it's been reported that the story would see the two men on another cross-country trip, this time searching for a kidney for Harry's illegitimate daughter. We haven't heard much about the film since last September, when it was said that the script was close to completion.

One of the biggest motivating factors behind Warner Bros. decision was the performance of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which also featured Carrey. The proposed Dumb & Dumber To would have had a small $30 million budget had WB decided to make it, but the magician comedy had a similar budget and only ended up making $22 million at the domestic box office. THR adds that if the project does end up getting made by someone else, the original studio "still would get a licensing fee and a share of back end." So in some ways it could be seen as a win-win for them.

There always looms the question about whether we actually want another Dumb & Dumber movie, though. Even ignoring the bad prequel, it's been more than a decade since the Farrellys made a legitimately good comedy. Do you hope that someone picks up Dumb & Dumber To, or would you rather just see it go away? Answer our poll below and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

This poll is no longer available.

At this point the Dumb & Dumber sequel might need to live on as a "wishful thinking" kind of movie, though one with more powerful wishful thinking behind it than most. It seemed to be full speed ahead into production earlier this year, until Jim Carrey suddenly backed out over the summer, claiming the studio wasn't committed enough. Then Jeff Daniels stepped up to promise that it was really going to happen, but no firm dates have yet been set.

But all this time, directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly have stuck by the movie, and talking in the UK to Digital Spy (they're just now getting The Three Stooges over there, poor bastards), the Farrellys hinted at a spring start date, as well as the story that will send Harry and Lloyd on a new adventure:

All that stands to reason, both the fact that Harry and Lloyd haven't gotten any smarter-- wouldn't it be disappointing if they had?-- and that it takes a selfish request for a kidney to get one of them to hunt down the kid. Of course, all this depends on one of them convincing a woman to sleep with him, and given how things went with Mary Swanson last time, that doesn't seem too likely. If we do finally wind up getting this long-promised sequel, though, I'm sure we can get over that little narrative hump.

When it was rumored two weeks back that James Marsden would play Larry Fine in the Farrelly brother's The Three Stooges, I called it "fairly strange" before remember that this was the same guy who played Cyclops in the X-Men movies. Who knew that not only would that rumor turn out to be false, but that they would find someone even less appropriate for the part?

Deadline reports that Sean Hayes has been selected to play Larry in The Three Stooges. While the search for Moe continues (the same previous rumor pinned Hank Azaria as a frontrunner), Will Sasso was recently awarded the role of Curly in the film. While famous for his role as Jack on Will and Grace, Hayes hasn't had much work in recent years, his last live-action role being 2008's Soul Men. Not being structured as a biopic, the Farrelly's movie will be structured like multiple episodes of the classic TV series put back to back, starting with the three men growing up in an orphanage.

While I thought that Sasso was an interesting choice because they were going for appearance and performance over name recognition, this casting decision boggles the mind. While I suppose the casting of Moe could aways be a game changer, it looks like the Farrelly's are going to continue their decade-long streak of making unfunny comedies.

Will Sasso's name surfaced exactly a month ago as one of the many in contention for The Three Stooges, the new take on the classic comic figures from directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Sasso's possible participation was overshadowed by some bigger names, like Johnny Knoxville and Larry David, but now he seems to be the likeliest to actually get on board; according to THR, Sasso has resurfaced as a "likely frontrunner" for the film, though there's no deal officially in place.

In fact, the entire story is so based on rumor that it includes Cher being "interested," after tweeting last week about meeting with the Farrellys to play a nun in the film. So really, there's no telling where Sasso might wind up in the casting shakedown. After all the rumors about who the Farrellys might bring on board, including the recent will-he-or-won't-he scuffle about Johnny Knoxville starring that eventually ended with the Jackass star not on board at all, it would be a little anticlimactic for the relatively unknown Sasso to be the first official cast member. Then again, after all this speculation, I'm ready to just see any kind of cast take shape.

Back in January it was reported that Jackass star Johnny Knoxville and SNL castmember Andy Samberg were being considered for the roles of Moe and Larry, respectively, in the Farrelly brother's version of The Three Stooges. Only a few hours later, Peter Farrelly spoke to the press and said that the story wasn't true. Naturally, it was kind of funny when it was reported last week that Knoxville would indeed be playing Moe and was just waiting on an offer from the studio. Guess what? That story was bogus too.

THR did some investigating, and while Knoxville did show an interest in the project at one point, negotiating never actually began with 20th Century Fox and an offer was never made. The actor will instead be focusing his attention on the two recently announced projects over at Paramount, the Broken Lizard-Jackass team-up Mustache Riders and the political comedy First Man. Casting continues for the Three Stooges film, which is scheduled to start filming in the next few months.

So let's let that be the end of it, shall we? Johnny Knoxville will not be playing Moe in The Three Stooges. Case closed.

At the very start of the Farrelly brother's Three Stooges madness, the casting was set up to have Sean Penn play Larry, Jim Carrey play Curly and Benicio Del Toro play Moe. It's been nearly two years since that story first broke, and now the cast list is totally empty after Penn and Carrey spent years wanting to do it and then dropping out at random. Del Toro, on the other hand, has seemingly never wavered in his commitment, and, apparently, he's still the frontrunner for the role of Moe. Director Peter Farrelly recently did an interview with the Providence Journal and has revealed that after years of confusion, Del Toro is still the highest person on their list to play the leader of the Stooges. According to the director, nothing is official yet and there's still no deal in place, but the Oscar winner remains as the heavy favorite.

Between Del Toro, Penn and Carrey, Del Toro truly looks more like one of the Stooges than the other two, who would have to undergo massive transformations in order to look like their characters (Carrey would have had to put on quite a few pounds and Penn would have needed to shave his head into a horseshoe). If the plan really is for the performer to "be Moe" as opposed to "play Moe," then Del Toro probably is the best choice.

The Farrelly Brothers have been struggling to get a Three Stooges movie made for years and while the project’s far from dead, right now no one seems to know for sure when it’ll happen or if it does happen, who will be in it. Jim Carrey, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, and Paul Giamatti have all at one point or another been rumored to be locked in as Stooges. Right now Sean Penn as Larry, Benicio del Toro as Moe, and Jim Carrey as Curly is the most likely cast, but we’re not here to talk about who’s it in it, we’re here to talk about The Three Stooges script sitting in front of me on my desk.

When the movie finally gets made, this is the screenplay the Farrellys are planning to use. Written by Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, and Mike Cerrone, this Three Stooges script is Stooges through and through. It has all the right rhythms, the right gags, the right amount of gratuitous violence. The Stooges have had a monumental influence on comedy and it incorporates ideas from the people the Stooges have influenced too. There’s a full range of wildly different Stooges inspired comedic ideas from Dumb & Dumber to ¡Three Amigos! to The Family Guy (Seth MacFarlane actually has a critical role in the film, playing himself no less). The script manages not just to duplicate the things the Stooges used to do, but it resurrects the Three Stooges method and puts it in a modern setting. Because of that, maybe you won’t like it if you’re not already a Stooges fan. Maybe you’ll think it’s just a bunch of farts, but here, they’re really creative farts. The Three Stooges contains farting like you’ve never seen before.

It starts with the Stooges as kids and if there’s a clear weak spot in this script it’s the film’s introduction. When we meet them the Stooges are babies left in a sack with a bunch of nuns at an orphanage, and it’s only a microsecond before one of the Stooge babies pulls off a trademark Stooge gag. Frankly, it’s pretty lame. It gets even lamer as the babies get older, and for some inexplicable reason the script has all these out of place, special effects gags worked in while the Stooge orphans run around terrorizing nuns. For starters the script makes it pretty clear that the adult actors who play the adult Stooges will also play Larry, Moe, and Curly as kids. Specifically it suggests they’ll use “FX to miniaturize them and tweak their voices”. Worse the Stooges over the top, childhood gags are directed to be computer enhanced. I’m not sure why, they don’t seem to need it.

Luckily once the script gets past that childhood intro, it really takes off. The tendency towards special effects gags in place of straight up, slapstick comedy is dropped and the boys get down to the business of smacking each other around, fighting, and generally screwing up. Larry, Moe, and Curly are the Stooges here. There’s no mention of Shemp or any of the other replacements who drifted in and out through the years. It’s the holy Stooge trinity. The plot involves a race to save the orphanage which has been their home for thirty years. The nuns are in debt and so Larry, Moe, and Curly set out into the world to earn the money they need.

At first their plan mainly involves standing on a street corner with a sign offering their vaguely defined services for an outrageous sum. This gets them hired as assassins for reasons which only sort of make sense. A woman and her boyfriend want her husband dead and so they convince the Stooges to do it through trickery. This soon backfires and launches the Stooges into a strange adventure together and briefly on separate journeys to different places. It lands one of them on a reality television program, another takes up farming, and the other just sort of wanders around and whimpers. That’s really all I can tell you without spoiling everything. Start guessing.

What’s important is how clearly defined Larry, Moe, and Curly are. They’re written as if they’ve just stepped out of one of their 1940s shorts and onto the page. The world around them is modern and in theory so are they, but much of the time it’s like they’re living in the 40s and don’t seem to notice that everyone else isn’t. The movie never mines this for humor or directly addresses it. It’s a subtle thing really, a simple their fact of existence, a weird side effect which only seems to make the movie’s other gags even funnier. It’s more a product of the reverence the Farrellys have for the characters themselves than any attempt to go retro. Like us, they’ve clearly had these people burned into their heads, and know that a Stooges movie isn’t a Stooges movie unless those three appear as they’ve always been in it.

The closest the script’s writers come to contemporizing Larry, Moe, and Curly is in the way they’ve managed to gross up their gags. While the Stooges aren’t exactly known for scatological humor the Farrelly Brothers are and they’re more than happy to bring that element into the Stooges universe. Yet they do it in a way that I think would have made the Howards proud. You get the sense that if the boys could have gotten away with it back in the 40s, they would have done it exactly like this. They couldn’t and so they threw pies at each other when what maybe they really wanted to shoot each other with urine squirting babies. While almost every other classic Stooges move you can think of made it into the Farrelly Brothers script, the classic banana cream pie fight does not. It’s been replaced by an incredibly sick pee battle and, you know what, it kind of works. What they’ve done is modernize some of the props, without really modernizing the sense of humor. It’s the same Stooge gags, the same Stooge sensibility, but with a few Farrellys fluids.

There are times, however, when the script feels as if the whole thing’s on the verge of going too far into Farrelly territory. There’s a character without an upper lip for instance, who lacks an upper lip mainly because the Farrelly boys probably think it’s funny to have someone with a deformity in their movie. The fact that there’s running gag involving very specific commentary on a since cancelled reality show worked into the story is a little strange too (even if it’s kind of hilarious).

Most of the time the script is Farrelly free and flat out Stooges. It’s all there, the eye-pokes, the silly name gags, the trademark insults. Moe rules the trio with an iron fist, which frequently impacts with Curly’s equally iron head. When Moe’s out of the picture Larry tries to step in to dispense Curly discipline but in a hilarious scene we quickly learn he just can’t slap him around like Moe can. Some of it even transcends slapstick and scat humor, though as a Stooges movie it probably didn’t have to put forward the effort. It does anyway. In particular there’s a hilarious sequence in which Larry attempts to start a solo career which should have people rolling in the aisles. Every Stooge has his day and the movie finds the right balance between keeping them together and breaking them apart briefly so each can shine on his own.

On paper at least, The Farrellys have really pulled it off. Will it appeal to anyone who’s not already a Three Stooges fan? I don’t know. It’s ridiculous slapstick, over the top cartoon violence, and as much feces flinging as the MPAA’s censors can possibly stomach. It’s a live-action Looney Tunes Cartoon for adults who haven’t really grown up. Throw in some kung fu and it could easily be a Stephen Chow film. Much like the Stooges themselves, that’s just not for everyone. Fans though, are sure to be ecstatic. This is The Three Stooges movie you’ve been waiting for. Cross your fingers and hope The Farrellys get it done.

Exactly how many characters can manage to fit into the Farrelly Brothers' Hall Pass. We've already got Jason Sudeikis, Owen Wilson and Jenna Fischer in the lead roles, and Stephen Merchant, J.B. Smoove, Amanda Bynes, Derek Waters and Nicky Whelan have all managed to find supporting roles as well. Now there's another actress to add to the pile-- Deadline Hollywood reports that Christina Applegate will join the cast as well, playing one of the lead wives.

I'm not sure who's married to who, if it's Applegate & Wilson or Applegate & Sudeikis, though I'm voting for the latter for no apparent reason. Applegate's sitcom Samantha Who? is wrapping up its run this season, so it makes sense for the actress to try her hand at movies once again. We're in desperate need of some fresh blood for romantic comedy heroines anyway. Welcome back to the fold, Christina.

Now that it's moving forward after years of development stalls, Peter and Bobby Farrelly's Hall Pass is gaining cast members at a pretty amazing rate. As THR reports, joining Jenna Fischer, Jason Sudeikis and Owen Wilson will be Nicky Whelan and Derek Waters, who have just signed on to the cast.

Whelan will be playing a pivotal role, as a woman who tempts WIlson's character once he's been given the free pass. Waters, for his part, plays a barista and DJ who somehow gets in the way between Whelan and Wilson. You may recognized Whelan from the newly rebooted Scrubs, in which she pays a medical student. Waters is best known at the moment as a filmmaker; he co-directed the short Drunk History, which starred Will Ferrell and Jack Black and won the Grand Jury Prize for short filmmaking at Sundance.