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Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173961] Wed, 25 March 2009 15:03 Go to next message
nebusj- is currently offline  nebusj-
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According to Variety:

http://www.variety.com/VR1118001643.html
MGM gets its 'Stooges'
Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan
By MICHAEL FLEMING

MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their
cast for "The Three Stooges."

Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations
are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor
already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the
physical dimensions of Jerome "Curly" Howard.

The studio is zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.

The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built
around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard,
Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.


--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173962 is a reply to message #173961] Wed, 25 March 2009 16:23 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Doug Elrod is currently offline  Doug Elrod
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On Mar 25, 3:03 pm, nebu...@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
>                 The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built
>         around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard,
>         Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.

That's good, because we've ALREADY seen the biopic of Larry Fine!
(For one RATMM point, what was it?)

-Doug Elrod (dre1@cornell.edu)
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173963 is a reply to message #173961] Wed, 25 March 2009 16:57 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: Tom Carberry

"Joseph Nebus" <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote in message
news:nebusj.1238007626@vcmr-86.server.rpi.edu...
> According to Variety:
>
> http://www.variety.com/VR1118001643.html
> MGM gets its 'Stooges'
> Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan
> By MICHAEL FLEMING
>
> MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their
> cast for "The Three Stooges."
>
> Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations
> are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor
> already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the
> physical dimensions of Jerome "Curly" Howard.
>
> The studio is zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.
>
> The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built
> around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard,
> Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.
>
>
> --
> Joseph Nebus
> ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------

Wow!

Tom Carberry (#45505, and why does this idea have "Stinkburger" written all
over it?)
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173964 is a reply to message #173961] Wed, 25 March 2009 22:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Frank J. Lhota is currently offline  Frank J. Lhota
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Member
Joseph Nebus wrote:
> According to Variety:
>
> http://www.variety.com/VR1118001643.html
> MGM gets its 'Stooges'
> Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan
> By MICHAEL FLEMING
>
> MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their
> cast for "The Three Stooges."
>
> Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations
> are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor
> already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the
> physical dimensions of Jerome "Curly" Howard.
>
> The studio is zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.
>
> The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built
> around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard,
> Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.

My prediction: Jim Carrey will put in an excellent performance as Curly.
Carrey has a background in physical comedy, and in "The Man in the Moon"
he demonstrated that he has the ability to recreate another performer's
shtick.

Unfortunately, I also predict that Carrey's performance as Curly will be
the film's only saving grace. Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn are about
to learn the hard way that slapstick comedy is *much* harder to pull off
than it looks. It requires precise timing and synchronization. Vivian
Blain, who starred in many musicals, did one Laurel and Hardy film. She
came away from the Laurel and Hardy quite impressed: she observed that
their slapstick bits required as much care and preparation as a Fred
Astaire dance number!

The real Stooges may not be the most versatile actors around, but they
were masters of physical comedy. They learned their craft from years of
Vaudeville, and through the many live performances that they continued
to make even after they started making films. Del Toro and Penn will
only have a few months to get up to Moe and Larry's level. I fear that
the results won't be very funny.

--
"All things extant in this world,
Gods of Heaven, gods of Earth,
Let everything be as it should be;
Thus shall it be!"
- Magical chant from "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi"

"Drizzle, Drazzle, Drozzle, Drome,
Time for this one to come home!"
- Mr. Wizard from "Tooter Turtle"
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173965 is a reply to message #173964] Wed, 25 March 2009 22:55 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: Derek Janssen

Frank J. Lhota wrote:

>
> The real Stooges may not be the most versatile actors around, but they
> were masters of physical comedy. They learned their craft from years of
> Vaudeville, and through the many live performances that they continued
> to make even after they started making films. Del Toro and Penn will
> only have a few months to get up to Moe and Larry's level. I fear that
> the results won't be very funny.

They also had a burlesque-stage sense of synchronization that three
separate actors (one of which specializing in Humor of Over-The-Top
Annoyance) can't just coldly replicate overnight, out of just fan-geek
imitation...
Michael Chiklis in the TV biopic has nothing to worry about.

Derek Janssen
ejanss1@verizon.net
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173966 is a reply to message #173961] Thu, 26 March 2009 02:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: Bill Livingston

Previously on "Dollhouse", nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
> According to Variety:
>
> http://www.variety.com/VR1118001643.html
> MGM gets its 'Stooges'
> Penn, Carrey, Del Toro part of studio's plan
> By MICHAEL FLEMING
>
> MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their
> cast for "The Three Stooges."
>
> Studio has set Sean Penn to play Larry, and negotiations
> are underway with Jim Carrey to play Curly, with the actor
> already making plans to gain 40 pounds to approximate the
> physical dimensions of Jerome "Curly" Howard.
>
> The studio is zeroing in on Benicio Del Toro to play Moe.
>
> The film is not a biopic, but rather a comedy built
> around the antics of the three characters that Moe Howard,
> Larry Fine and Howard played in the Columbia Pictures shorts.

If anyone needs me, I'll be over here in the corner, weeping
copiously. Don;t mind me, go on abot your business.

Bill L.
Lookit the grouse!! Lookit the grouse!!
Re: Comedy to be hit in head with lead pipe, have eyes poked, die accompanied by woo-woo-woo-nyagh-nyagh-nyagh noises [message #173967 is a reply to message #173965] Thu, 26 March 2009 02:11 Go to previous message
George Johnson is currently offline  George Johnson
Messages: 129
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Senior Member
"Derek Janssen" <ejanss1@nospam.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:A8Cyl.105$Nk3.25@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> Frank J. Lhota wrote:
>
>>
>> The real Stooges may not be the most versatile actors around, but they
>> were masters of physical comedy. They learned their craft from years of
>> Vaudeville, and through the many live performances that they continued to
>> make even after they started making films. Del Toro and Penn will only
>> have a few months to get up to Moe and Larry's level. I fear that the
>> results won't be very funny.
>
> They also had a burlesque-stage sense of synchronization that three
> separate actors (one of which specializing in Humor of Over-The-Top
> Annoyance) can't just coldly replicate overnight, out of just fan-geek
> imitation...
> Michael Chiklis in the TV biopic has nothing to worry about.
>
> Derek Janssen
> ejanss1@verizon.net

I personally think the casting is pretty bad.

Jim Carrey should be playing Moe. He can be aggressive and very
coordinated. Moe was a character that nobody loved, but he kept the team
together. The only problem with using Jim Carrey as Moe is in the voice and
Jim's seriously irritating "Spazz Factor" (brought to supremely irksome
levels in entirely joyless horribly soulless "The Grinch" movie --- the kind
of film that begs for all of the character actors and director to be
disemboweled and fed back their greasy organs as their life ebbs away).
Carrey proved he can "tone it down to an indoor voice" level of audience
repulsion in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and he could
do a decent Moe if he doesn't try to cram the concept of him playing Moe
Howard down out gullets like a pushy Jewish mother.

Sean Penn can play "passive" and unfortunately he does it too damn well.
Larry Fine is a character who tetters between content fantasy and aggressive
unsuccessful bossiness (because Moe is there to slap Larry back down). When
Moe isn't near, then Larry slips into a light daydream mode (at this point
the default character of Sean Penn) that is when all of the accident-prone
comedy kicks in. Sean Penn can play Larry if he played Larry like Keanu
Reeves played the character of "Neo" in "The Matrix" series of movies. The
character of "Neo" was basically an emotionally-numb-dumbass (the default
state of Keanu Reeves) who took upon himself a path of grand adventure,
which would be deadly injurious to any sane human being, and then only
showed the emotion of anger when nobody would accept Neo's delusion of "This
is my world, I'm merely tolerating your living in it" mindset. Toss in a
sprinkling of lady-watching and you've got the Stooge character of Larry
Fine.

Curly is the hardest to cast. Most people see the Curly character as an
oversized-child dimwitted accident-prone tagalong. To some degree it is a
correct description of the character yet a totally wrong overestimation of
the ease of the role. Curly is your standard "audience reaction" device in
that he builds up suspense for the upcoming gag. Doing so to sell the gag
correctly however is a whole bit tougher than it appears in timing and body
language. CURLY HAS TO BE LIKABLE. This cannot be emphasized enough. It
is very important that Curly (or Shemp) (or Joe) not be played as the butt
of all the gags and he must "win" enough gag climaxes to keep the audience
happy. Curly is a "jolly fat man" character without the great one-liners.
I can easily think of 20 talented men who could play Curly with ease and do
it very well.

None of the listed actors for this movies right now could properly play
Curly or Shemp or Joe.

Nathan Lane could do a good Curly, but he'd have to tone down the "Diva
drama" aspect of his characters and play Curly like a "Likable Dimwitted
Janitor Guy" without hogging the spotlight. That is still just one of many
folks I can effortlessly imagine playing Curly very well if they applied
themselves properly to the role.

========

Moe is the "incompetent abusive daddy" character who is hated by the
audience to a degree in that he constantly has to hit "his boys", but he
does care about the well-being of "his boys" even though neither of "the
kids" are aware of that. Moe is a screwup yet he sets off all of the major
story plot points. Moe is liked because he never gives up on chasing
success and never really is able to achieve it (because of bad luck or the
accident-prone actions of Larry or the Curly). Moe is a simmering pot of
frustration and anger that is restrained until a big screwup happens to
spoil Moe's plans.

Larry is the dreamer who knows Moe has always failed him as a leader and
Curly in the big schemes. Larry really doesn't give a serious damn about it
though because Larry prefers to be led unless the work gets too hard and
then Larry drifts off to daydream-world (which leads to a plan-killing
accident usually). Larry is not so much for the work part of any plan, but
he is always daydreaming too damn much about the payoff for Moe's plans.
Larry likes Moe until Moe is pissed off. Larry likes Curly except when
Curly tries to take Moe's role. Larry is all about the payoff and never
focuses on the boring work to get there. Larry also feels he is smarter
than both Moe and Curly, although he rarely boasts about it for the fear of
an immediate backslap from Moe.

Curly is the overgrown child character. Big chubby and powerful. Much
stronger than both Moe and Larry. Curly is willing to take conflicting
orders from both Moe and Larry as Curly is submissive to both up to the
point that he is getting blamed for the immediate problems. Curly is a hard
worker who tends not to get into accidents unless he is distracted by an
outside influence. Curly is a perfectionist and also lacks the
fine-motor-skills dexterity to achieve perfection which leads to frustration
and slipping into angry force-escalation.

In short --
Moe is the schemer and the job finder.
Larry is the dreamer who gets bedazzled by the prize before getting
halfway to the finish line.
Curly is the likable child-like work-a-holic who is prone to get
blindsided by outside forces or screw up on over-obsessing over the tiny
details.

(Shemp being the argumentive "cowardly lion" who is often clever, but
gets confused easily)
(Joe being the confused workhorse who panics easily and overestimates
his skill to the point of accident)

=========

The only thing I can think of is to train the boys to synchronize using
Waltz music (slow pace with distinct movement cues). Once they get trained
to get the timing right, they can practice on getting the moves "visually
sellable". After that they have to work on their action-reaction-evasion
loop routine with facial and body language.

I see the big problem coming home in props.

Trying to replicate the actual "stunt comedy" without getting the balsa
wood clown hammers, steel spring metal saws (with dulled teeth), rubber
hammers shaped like claw hammers, and everything else rigged up correctly
will result in lots of injuries. I would recommend the stunt and props
coordinator on "Baby's Day Out" and the "Home Alone" movies as they
replicated the prop-function perfectly to a level that a "Three Stooges"
movie has.

Aside from that there are painfully obvious matters of liability.
The first dumbasses (fresh from watching a few hours of the "Jackass" or
"Wild Boyz" shows) who try to replicate the physical comedy with real
hammers and real saws and real wooden mallets will have their parents lined
up for winning the lawsuit-lottery. Granted "The Three Stooges" was a
necessary "Darwin Award by Imitation" sort of show, but many sane parents
(oh dear lord what a tiny minority of the population they are these days)
should logically conclude that taking their kids to a "Three Stooges" movie
is a really bad idea with the whole "injurious easily imitative behavior"
aspect of the Stooge-style physical comedy. That and the ladies in general
have never liked "The Three Stooges" as a general issue of concept whereas
the men are no longer openly primally-stimulated toward
violence-themed-comedy as they were in the Depression Era days as brawling
in this era leads to jail time and lawsuits.


They could go all "Roadrunner" cartoon and have serious physical injury
(horror movie levels of gore) appear to happen to the characters and camera
cuts away and the characters are all insta-healed. That sort of surreal
"videogame" style of injury is tolerated on an illogical level with kids +
teens these days. Usually "The Three Stooges" plots were Depression Era
attempts at getting themselves out of deep poverty or mocking high society
or taking an innocent mistake or mistaken identity to extreme levels of
exploitation. The violent physical comedy was only a cathartic-cartoonish
level of action in the mindset of a dream sequence. Shades of "I'm so
pissed at you right now, I'd bury the claw end of this hammer in your skull"
and with the Stooges, that becomes a visual reality, but none of the
characters suffer crippling or deadly injury or even the slightest bruise
(aside from yanking enough hair from Larry's head to fill a breadbox).
Dream wiggle-dissolves would help on selling the cartoonish violence, but
doesn't work for the Stooge interplay of slap-happy violence sequences.


Myself, I miss the efforts of Harold Lloyd. His was a suicidal level of
perilous stunt comedy that took supreme skill to make it look clever and
entertaining.
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