It's interesting to use The Three Stooges as a way to gauge the career status of the Farrelly Brothers, or at least our interest in them. More than half a decade ago they were working on getting a modern-day Stooge story off the ground at Warner Bros, and they were talking about George Clooney as Moe and James Gandolfini as Curly. And we cared. Now they've actually got the film going at MGM and they're going to do an American Idol-style search for someone to play Curly.

And nobody cares.

This announcement comes on the heels of the announcement of the Brothers directing The Farting Dog, starring the Jonas Brothers, which is certainly some kind of nadir for the guys who brought the R-rated comedy back. At least they're getting to make their dream project after they do the movie about a farting dog starring a group of metrosexual tween stars.

Peter Farrelly explains that their Three Stooges movie will not be a biopic, but rather a new Stooge adventure set in the here and now. "It takes place in present day, and they look, dress and sound exactly like the Stooges. When the economy started turning, we felt like the world could use a Stooges slapfest. Bobby and I haven’t done a real physical comedy in a while, and it’s the most exciting thing we could think of now, to have people go to the movie, see some great slapstick fun family humor."

The film will be structured like the original Stooges shorts, with three different half hour long stories. Just what sells tickets - an anthology comedy starring people dressed up like they're in the 1930s!