Peter Farrelly Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Peter and Bobby Farrelly's long-suffering project The Three Stooges has added and subtracted two more names to its cast, according to Boston.com, who caught up with Peter at a show at Fenway Park. Paul Giamatti, who can be seen on a limited number of arthouse screens in the wonderful new movie Cold Souls, will be taking on the role of Larry, the curly-haired comedian of the trio. (Oscar-winner Sean Penn ducked out of both The Three Stooges and Cartel earlier this summer.) Beleagured Wolf Man Benecio Del Toro is still on board to play slap-happy Moe, but Curly remains a mystery. According to Peter, who was trying to watch Paul McCartney while the reporter sussed out this info, the rumors that Jim Carrey will be playing the big-mouthed baldie are incorrect.

So who is willing to take the significant amount of Stooge abuse in the trio? Personally, I nominate Shia LaBeouf. Because someone needs a few noogies after Transformers 2.

If you're dying to participate in your own Stooge-y slapfight, you can download the iStooges app to your iPhone and n'yuck to your heart's delight. See a video demo after the jump.

While you might think that the end of the Howard brothers would mean the end of the Three Stooges, Variety reports that Peter and Bobby Farrelly are bringing the Stooges to the new millennium. After years of trying at Warner Bros., the brothers turned to MGM -- a studio that has not only welcomed the idea, but also picked out a release date already. Should the film get cooking soon, Three Stooges will be released opposite Sherlock Holmes on November 20, 2009. They must really love the idea to pit it against Robert Downey Jr.

Me, however, I don't love it. I grew up on the Three Stooges; they were a mainstay of my house. You cannot have Larry, Moe, and Curly without Larry, Moe, and Curly. You can argue the finer points of Curly love, and whether any of his many replacements worked as well, but there's a reason that the trio ended with the deaths of Larry and Moe. Sure, Moe tried to replace Larry in 1975, but since he died a few months later, nothing came of it.

And the Howard brothers plus Mr. Fine aside, I can picture what a Farrelly version of the Stooges will be, and I don't like it. The REAL trio did hundreds of films, so check those out instead, like the clip above.

Quick, name two things you've always wanted to see in a movie on the big screen ...

If you answered the Jonas Bros. and a farting dog, then I have some hella good news for you. 20th Century Fox has seduced the much sought-after Jonas boys (think: this generation's Hanson) into starring in their first feature, and it's called ... Walter the Farting Dog. Okay. What's creepier: That these three boys wanted this project to be their big film debut or that thousands of pre-teen girls will eventually jam and smash their way into theaters for a movie with the word 'farting' in the title? Wait, don't answer that.

All kidding aside, though, my dog churns out some seriously stinky surprises on a daily basis, and so I wholeheartedly sympathize with anyone whose animal likes to spread his or her most delicious fragrance all throughout the house. Interestingly enough, Walter the Farting Dog is based on a very popular series of books about a fat farting dog who joins a family of musicians (hey, the Jonas Bros. are musicians!) when the dog's owner (their aunt) falls sick and passes away. Oh, and here's the cherry for the top of this scrumptious cake: Peter and Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary) might direct the thing. I guess if you're looking for a couple of dudes who do fart jokes for a living, you can't really go wrong with those Farrelly boys ... except if you want your movie to turn out good. Ouch. I still love ya Mary!

What say you Jonas fans? Is this the perfect project for these boys, or should they seek out something a tad less icky?

[via Variety]

It's been quite some time since the Farrelly Bros. have given us a gem like There's Something About Mary, Kingpin or Dumb and Dumber. Big-screen comedy trends seem to be changing; moving away from the random gross-out gags and more toward the random pop-culture references. But that won't stop Bobby and Peter Farrelly from navigating toward material they're familiar with -- and Variety tells us their latest comes from a script written by Mike Arnold and Chris Poole. It's called Beaujolais. Yup. I don't know what it means; Wiki says it's a wine.

Anyway, the Farrelly boys are going to produce with an eye on possibly directing. Variety describes Beaujolais as a "redneck action-adventure with a protagonist along the lines of Austin Powers or Ace Ventura." So basically it's Larry the Cable guy with a few more catchphrases. Danny McBride is currently in talks to star; he's popped up in films like The Heartbreak Kid and Hot Rod, with upcoming roles in Land of the Lost and Tropic Thunder.

Do you think Peter and Bobby Farrelly still have a comedy classic left inside them? Or has their type of humor simply taken a long walk off a short pier? (Man, would I love to see another Outside Providence from these boys ...)

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are on a roll lately. They are currently filming The Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller, may or may not tackle the latest Three Stooges project and have just announced a new comedy based on a Jeffrey Euginedes short story called Baster, which they will write, direct, and executive produce. They describe it as a "character driven comedy for the in vitro age," so it doesn't take too much of a leap of faith to figure out the subject matter (batter?) of this film.

Casting has not yet been announced for the new flick, but we imagine a madcap, zany comedy where the lead character tries to find a sperm donor so she can be a mommy. For some reason I keep picturing Joan Cusack, because she's great at madcap, zany and slapstick, but it'll probably be someone younger. Especially since they'll need to emphasize the sex (or lack thereof?) in this movie. Plus the entire process of in vitro fertilization will probably get an enormous amount of attention from the Farrellys, who are huge fans of gross-out humor.

Who would you like to see in this role? Do you have a favorite female comedian who can handle Peter and Bobby?

Odds and ends from Monday:

• Hey, what do you know -- a story about Johnny Depp that isn't pirate-related. (Does that mean I can't call him Captain Jack? Nah.) Captain Jack's production company has tapped director Terry Zwigoff (Bad Santa) to helm Happy Days (no relation to the popular TV show), based off the French novel. Zwigoff will also co-write the script along with Jerry Stahl, with Depp's Infinitum Nihil and Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group producing. Story revolves around a man who leaves his wife and children in order to check himself into a rest home. However, while there, he forges a special bond with a terminal cancer patient and ultimately helps to fulfill her last wish.   
• Here's one way to get people to go see your movie -- just compare it to The Da Vinci Code. P.J. Hogan has signed on to direct Chasing Vermeer, based off the best-selling children's novel which is said to be like The Da Vinci Code, but for tweens. Having never read Chasing Vermeer, I cannot say how similar the two are. But I can tell you the story centers around two sixth-graders who attempt to solve the mystery behind a stolen Johannes Vermeer painting. Last I checked, the Catholic Church had nothing against sixth-graders, right?
• So, it turns out those rumors about Gwyneth Paltrow teaming back up with the Farrelly brothers were completely false. Oh well, I couldn't see her playing a bride from hell anyway. She's way too sweet. Ya know, like an apple. Instead, Peter and Bobby Farrelly have signed newcomer Malin Akerman to star alongside Ben Stiller and Michelle Monaghan in Seven Day Itch. Not much is known about Akerman, except that she's best known for her role in Lisa Kudrow's horrific HBO show The Comeback. Yes, it was horrific. And if she somehow wins the Emmy, I will officially ban TV in my apartment forever. 

Back in April we reported on yet another remake of a foreign film, this one to be directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly from a smash-hit French comedy called The Valet. Today, in an unusual twist (at least for non J-horror films), we hear that Sony Pictures Classics will bring the original film to these shores, a move that might have DreamWorks, the studio making the remake, a little nervous. After all, how many remakes are better than the originals? I mean, what if people see and actually like the French film? So much pressure for those poor Farrellys! That said, however, I'm not sure there's a significant overlap in the audiences for their films and those for subtitled comedies ...

In case you've forgotten, The Valet (both versions, one assumes) is about a "multimillionaire tycoon photographed kissing his famous mistress. To prevent his wife from seeking divorce, he bribes a parking valet to pose as his mistress' lover." In the French film, the tycoon is played by the completely wonderful Daniel Auteuil, while his wife, surprisingly, is played by Kristin Scott Thomas. The film was directed by Francis Veber, remakes of whose works -- The Birdcage primary among them -- have been fairly successful with American audiences; it'll be interesting to see how people react to the real thing when it's released here early next year.

DreamWorks has snatched up the remake rights to French director Francis Veber's La Doublure -- released only a month ago in France -- and signed Bobby and Peter Farrelly to direct said remake, which will be called The Valet. The film, not surprisingly, is a comedy about "a hapless valet who is captured in a photo of a fight between a Donald Trump-type mogul and his mistress, leading to all sorts of comedic entanglements." The main "entanglement" is that the valet is asked to "shack up" with the mistress -- something about giving the mogul a reason to get a divorce. (Variety's review is here, if you want to try to figure it out for yourself.) I'm just guessing here, but I'll bet you that someone ends up falling in love, despite class differences and awkward circumstances.

Based on reviews I've read, Veber's reputation is that he makes proverbial comedies with heart, and French audiences tend to dig them. American audiences, though we probably don't know it, have seen a few of his films as well -- remade, of course. The Birdcage, Father's Day, and Three Fugitives were all based on his comedies, and DreamWorks is fervently hoping The Valet makes Birdcage-style profits.

The movie has just been set to a writer, so it will be a while before we see how this newest Veber-rehash works out.