When Anthony Ippolito was cast as a young Sylvester Stallone for the upcoming 2026 release, Amazon MGM’s biopic I Play Rocky, he seemed like an understandable and fitting choice for this movie in a way that director Peter Ferrelly (of Dumb and Dumber and Balls Up) seemed like a strangely inspired one. But guess what? The first trailer has dropped, and it’s a surprisingly convincing trip back through time, and Ippolito is absolutely aces as its iconic subject, Sylvester Stallone.

As seen in the trailer above, the Purple Hearts star slides right into playing Sylvester Stallone without making it a parody or SNL-esque impression, and while also not just making it a fully Rocky-laden performance. There are layers here. Stal-layers, if you will.

Ippolito has been in the biz for years, but really made a name for himself with his take on a young Al Pacino in the cast of the limited series The Offer, and despite its limited capacity, it was a performance that was arguably better than the show as a whole. So it only makes sense that he could step into Stallone’s in-ring boots and bring the goods for this movie as well. I can only assume he’ll be playing Robert de Niro, John Turturro and Stanley Tucci over the next decade.

2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Rocky’s release, so it’s a fitting time to revisit the inspirational tale of a smalltime actor who believed in himself like no one else would and scripted one of the most classic sports movies of all time, and created one of cinema’s most celebrated underdogs and champions. The character fronted six movies on his own, along with three Creed-centric spinoffs. I doubt we’ll get biopic representations for each of those movies, but Hollywood is unpredictable like that.

Beyond Anthony Ippolito, I’m absolutely loving Stephan James as Carl Weathers, which seems like another spot-on portrayal. (I hope he talks about making a stew, baby, for Arrested Development purposes.) The cast also includes such heavy hitters as Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, and Kiki Seto.

Peter Farrelly turned in what appears to be quite an inspirational and not-entirely-serious take on the struggles Stallone faced before his meteoric rise to fame on those Philly stairs. I can’t imagine the movie will be entirely free from fart jokes and juvenile humor — this is the guy who made Shallow Hal, after all — but it does look slightly less schmaltzy than Oscar winner The Green Book.

It was written by Peter Gamble, whose most recently produced script was for the 2018 comedy Office Uprising, co-starring Brenton Thwaites, Jane Levy and Zachary Levi. At least his words sound excellent coming out of Ippolito’s mouth, amirite?

I Play Rocky is set for a limited theatrical release starting on November 6, but will then open wide to theaters all over the country later that month. Which possibly means spending Thanksgiving sparring against turkeys hanging in a walk-in freezer. Or not.

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.

Dumb and Dumber is regarded as one of the 100 best movies of the 1990s and a certified cult classic. Most of the comedy classic’s success was attributed to the impeccable chemistry of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. However, not everyone was sold on Daniels playing Harry Dunne. 30 years after the film’s release, Peter Farrelly revealed the story of Daniels’ Dumb and Dumber audition.

Before appearing in the slapstick comedy, Daniels had only done a few comedies aside from his celebrated dramatic work in films like Ragtime and Terms of Endearment. The topic came up as Farrelly discussed his new film Ricky Stanicky with CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast. When asked about casting “serious” actors like Daniels and William H. Macy in comedy, the Oscar-winning director delved into convincing New Line Cinema to pick the Radio Days actor for the outlandish role, saying:

If someone like Jim Carrey can be intimidated by Daniels, then the Emmy-winning actor was made for the role, as Farrelly mentioned. The director-writer knew Daniels would work as he recalled the actor’s 1986 comedy Something Wild being one of his favorite films. Although he was Carrey and Farrelly’s top choice, New Line faced a dilemma when it came to paying the beloved actor. The Raising Arizona director opened up about Carrey’s record-breaking salary affected Daniels’ payday unexpectedly, saying:  

It seemed like Jeff Daniels was playing the long game. He ended up cashing in on the comedy’s financial and cultural success. Dumb and Dumber grossed over $247 million worldwide despite getting a mixed reception. The cult classic comedy solidified Jim Carrey as a movie star and rebranded and revitalized Daniels’ Hollywood career. He appeared in lighter movies like 101 Dalmatians and Pleasantville afterward. The comedy was followed up by the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To two decades later. Of course, the Terms of Endearment star’s career continued moving forward on both the big and small screens. Check out Peter Farrelly’s full ReelBlend interview in the clip below.

If you want to relive every laugh-out-loud moment of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, stream Dumb and Dumber through a Netflix subscription. Don’t forget to look over our movie schedule for any upcoming theatrical and streaming comedies.

The ‘90s were the halcyon days for gross-out comedies, with filmmaking siblings Peter and Bobby Farrelly leading the pack similarly to how Zucker-Abrams-Zucker reigned supreme in the world of spoof cinema. The duo struck gold with the 1-2-3 combo of Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary, with wildly varying results from 2000 onward, leading into the brothers going off to solo directing careers. And then along came Ricky Stanicky.

The 2010 Black List screenplay changed hands several times over the the course of twelve years, eventually landing with Peter Farrelly – who used it as a means to return to his slapstick, balls-out roots (metaphorically in this case). With Zac Efron and John Cena fronting the often NSFW chaos – and without Bobby Farrelly’s involvement – Ricky Stanicky is definitely cut from the same questionably stained cloth as the R-rated efforts Kingpin and Me, Myself & Irene. 

The movie, in which the power of friendship is built upon a foundation of lies, oozes the same kind of gloriously dumb humor that needs a smart person to make it funny, and I laughed from beginning to end while only occasionally judging myself for it. But though the overall story is pleasing and surprisingly sidesteps certain narrative tropes, the main thing holding Ricky Stanicky back from true greatness is the screenplay, which feels overwritten and underwritten all at once.

Ricky Stanicky handles its offbeat concept well but with zero valid subplots to balance the flow.

One of the admittedly great things about Ricky Stanicky is its elevator pitch. As children, three friends make up a kid with the titular moniker to get themselves out of trouble, and they spend the next 20 years evolving that deceit into an artform excuse to take mini-vacations and avoid less satisfactory obligations. As adults, the trio are forced to provide proof of his existence once their lies become uncontrollable, and they employ a struggling “actor” to take the part. It’s a setup and conflict with a wacky built-in solution. Nothing wrong with that.

Making things more troublesome for the central trio of Dean (Zac Efron), Wes (Jermaine Fowler) and JT (Andrew Santino)? They’re each at different stages in their romantic relationships. JT and his wife, played by Loudermilk fave Anja Savcic, are heading into parenthood; Dean and his girlfriend (Florida Man’s Lex Scott Davis) have happily been dating for a long while; and Wes’ lack of forward momentum is creating stress with his boyfriend. 

Understandably for a plot like this, all three of those partnerships are at risk because of Ricky, who the guys continuously excuse away as being busy with philanthropic duties around the globe. That’s where John Cena’s Rod comes in (pun flaccidly intended). An Atlantic City entertainer of sorts, he’s tasked with living up to the standards that Dean, Wes and JT have painstakingly set up over the years. 

All the cringe-worthy moments one might expect ensue, but with only one narrative to pay attention to, the story starts wearing thin as the movie hits the midway point. While Ricky Stanicky gets credit for avoiding certain moves that many R-rated comedies lean into and brandishes more heart than snark on its sleeve, any kind of B-plot would have allowed the main story to breathe easier and could have helped the underutilized significant others. This is somewhat helped by William H. Macy’s Summerhayes, Dean and JT’s affluent and oblivious boss, but his arrival just changes the story’s direction as opposed to supplementing anything.

For a gross-out comedy, Ricky Stanicky isn’t all that gross, and it lacks the off-the-wall energy of the Farrellys' golden era. 

I was a 13-year-old sack of unbridled hormones upon watching Kingpin for the first time in the weeks after its theatrical debut, and rather than witnessing more dorky duos running amok, it was all the grimiest bits of Dumb and Dumber expanding exponentially with even more comedy masterminds within the ensembles. The 1996 film set the high mark for low brow humor in my mind, and while it’s neither Bobby nor Peter Farrelly’s fault (and isn’t really a “fault” at all), I’ve always felt a twinge of disappointment whenever any of their later releases failed to dredge the same skeezy waters as the ones Woody Harrelson’s Roy Munson and Bill Murray’s Ernie McCracken bathed in. Still, out came those same hopes when it looked like Ricky Stanicky could be a return to form.

In the new movie, the majority of anything that could be conceived as gross is within the dialogue (which may or may not sometimes be accompanied by hand-mimed sexual acts). John Cena and William H. Macy play heavily into this material without anything getting very extreme on the visual side at any point. To that end, only a scant few moments come to mind with over-the-top physical comedy, gross or otherwise, that take things to a different level.

Do they hit? Absolutely, which is why it’s a shame this movie isn’t filled with them. As disappointing as it may or may not be, we’re not getting any scenes where Zac Efron’s hair is styled like a certain Cameron Diaz character’s was because of a certain bodily fluid, and there’s not even a single diarrheal explosion to be heard anywhere in the soundtrack. I mean, what are we even doing here?

Ricky Stanicky is undeniably John Cena’s movie, and it continues to prove he’s one of the funniest actors in Hollywood.

Peter Farrelly has worked with a slew of brilliant, top-tier actors, many of whom boast a history with sketch comedy along with proven dramatic chops – from Jim Carrey to Ben Stiller to Will Sasso and beyond. So I can imagine roughly 300 actors who could have played the part of Ricky Stanicky with ease, many of whom would have done somewhere between “splendid” and “zowie-wowie.” But I’m glad to live in a universe where this horny and hopeful lounge singer is played by WWE fave and future comedy legend John Cena.

Throughout Ricky Stanicky, Cena runs through a surprisingly deep gamut of character types and behaviors without missing a beat or feeling inauthentic. You buy him as a self-promoting casino singer who specializes in cosplaying performances for song parodies exclusively about masturbation. You buy him as someone trying to climb from rock bottom to whatever higher class will take him. You buy him as a (fictional) actor whose role research may be his most impressive value.

Also, because Cena is so genial even at his character's lowest points, it helps audiences buy into the idea that this doofus can't stop failing upwards after meeting Dean & Co. It's like Peter Farrelly is tapping into the reverse-logic of another craven '90s classic, Beavis & Butt-Head, in that the lead foursome manage to avoid certain worst case scenarios because of the unexpected ways other characters react to their damning behavior, as opposed to them facing constant admonishment and heightened peril.

I don't know that the next step for Peter Farrelly should be to direct a new Nutty Professor movie where, instead of just playing each of the main character's family members as Eddie Murphy did, John Cena plays every single character period. But if that did happen, I can hope the lesson learned here is to cut out 35% of the dick jokes and add 50% more head-bonkings, full-speed pratfalls, and characters' body parts getting caught on mechanical things. 

Oscar-winning filmmaker and comedy legend Peter Farrelly joins the show to discuss his new film Ricky Stanicky! Not only do we dive into the comedic prowess of John Cena in his new film, but we couldn’t have Peter Farrelly on the show without discussing his collaborations with Jim Carrey. We can’t wait for you to hear his behind-the-scenes gems on how Dumb & Dumber was finally made, casting both Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels and so much more. 

Later this week, our interview with Dune: Part Two star Rebecca Ferguson hits our feeds so stay tuned!

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Netflix boasts plenty of great original series worth a binge-watch, including Stranger Things, You, Black Mirror, etc. However, the streamer has also been known to give new life to shows that viewers may have missed the first time around. Suits is a big example of that, with the USA Network’s legal drama becoming wildly popular on Netflix, to the point that a Suits spinoff is in the works. Now it appears Loudermilk — a 2017 comedy starring Ron Livingston — has become the next can’t-miss series on Netflix, so will its success also bring more episodes? Turns out, series creator Peter Farrelly already has an idea for Season 4.

Three seasons of the Canadian comedy were previously released on Audience Network and Amazon Prime, but I am one fan now kicking myself for not finding Loudermilk until it became available with a Netflix subscription in January. The show centers around former music critic Sam Loudermilk (Ron Livingston), a cynical recovering addict who runs a support group. Peter Farrelly told Deadline he always had a plan to continue the story past three seasons, and it seems Season 4 might see the titular character trying to balance professional success with his responsibilities to his fellow addicts. The creator said: 

Chief amongst those in Loudermilk’s life are his sponsor and roommate Ben (Will Sasso) and sponsee Claire (Anja Savcic), and while we also get to know the other members of the motley crew of addicts, it sounds like Peter Farrelly envisions some celebrity cameos in his potential fourth season. He continued: 

This definitely sounds like a fun twist on an already-great show. The comedy is smartly written, and the chemistry between the three leading cast members is fantastic. Will Sasso — who’s been in the news recently with his Dudesy podcast and its A.I. comedy specials — is delightful as Ben and the perfect complement to Ron Livingston’s curmudgeon. I really need Loudermilk Season 4 to happen, and given Peter Farrelly’s plans for the story on top having a consistent presence in Netflix’s Top 10 for the month of January, I’m very hopeful. 

Furthermore, the famed director told Deadline he could easily get the cast back together to film a 10-episode season in just eight weeks. Peter Farrelly said he plans to shop Loudermilk around for additional seasons, but to continue on Netflix would be “my dream,” he said.

That makes two of us. For now, you can stream the first three seasons of Loudermilk on Netflix, and be sure to check out what else is new and coming soon to Netflix. You can also stay up to date on all of the upcoming premieres with our 2024 TV schedule. 

“The Greatest Beer Run Ever” starring Zac Efron and Russell Crowe, and directed by Peter Farrelly is definitely not the greatest movie ever, according to CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor Sean O’Connell. Watch his review of the new film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is coming to Apple TV+ September 30th.

Video Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Zac Efron’s Performance
03:05 - The Terrible Script
05:20 - Russell Crowe’s Role
06:38 - Star Rating and Final Thoughts
7:33 - Outro

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.

Twenty years ago, Dumb And Dumber dropped into the comedy landscape like an atom bomb of stupid. That's not to say the movie was stupid, but let's face it... Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne probably only left elementary school on the good graces of a very planned clerical error. Yet that was what made them funny to film going audiences across the world, as their stupidity was only matched by their tolerance for pain and their tenacity to make it to the finish line. It's the movie that solidified Jim Carrey's career, and made Jeff Daniels even more memorable than he was at the time. Now the boys are back in town with Dumb And Dumber To, and we have word on when and where you can get your first look at the continuing adventures of everyone's favorite idiotic duo!

After that quiet Tweet (which was further confirmed by Peter Farelly's official Reddit account), confirmation began springing up that not only is the trailer set for its debut on June 10th, but that two special presenters are going to be on site to break the wind.... er, news, on this one. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels will be two of the guests on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon next Tuesday night ready to reveal just what they've been up to all of these years (perhaps they will come in character as Harry and Lloyd?). If you're a glutton for spoilers on this front, our coverage from the Cinema Con presentation for the film back in March can help you get a quick leg up on what will probably be seen in the preview spot.)

The Farrelly Brothers have been slowly building up steam on this one, and weirdly Jimmy Fallon's show has been a great platform to make announcements about the project. After all, it was Jeff Daniels' announcement on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last July that started us all down this rabbit hole. It would only seem fitting that the next step in the journey would take place where it all began. As Peter Farrelly explained on his Twitter page,

Dumb And Dumber was the Farrelly Brothers' ticket to comedic stardom back in the early '90s, and some say it's still the greatest crowning achievement in their careers. After a string of hits (There's Something About Mary), flops (The Heartbreak Kid), and underrated successes (The Three Stooges), it'll be a fitting return to see Peter and Bobby return to the world of Harry and Lloyd. Now let's just hope it's a triumphant return worthy of this pair of iconic characters.

Dumb And Dumber To will be dropping your IQ down to a more comfortable level on November 14th, 2014.

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.

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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.

If there's a lesson to be learned from my interview with Ivan Reitman and the Ghostbusters III story that I wrote earlier today, it's that not every story read online could or should be taken as fact, particularly when discussing the film industry. There are simply too many moving pieces within a production and things happen so quickly that what appears to be a real story turns into bunk in an instant. Such is the case with yesterday's Three Stooges story.

Responding to The Wrap's report that Johnny Knoxville, Andy Samberg and Shane Jacobson are shortlisted for the roles of Moe, Larry and Curly, respectively, director Peter Farrelly spoke with EW and shut the whole thing down. Instead, Farrelly says that the whole process is still "wide open to everybody," and that "there is no leader in the clubhouse." More so, neither Knoxville or Samberg have even auditioned for a part.

There isn't any direct mention in the story about finding amateur actors to play the stooges, but I suppose there are multiple ways to take Farrelly's comments. It's also worth noting that the production has been shifted back by a month, likely to provide more time to find the perfect performers for the parts. Let's hope they choose wisely.

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.