In a perfect world, the Three Stooges would have died when the guys who played them did. There are no Stooges without the Stooges. Seriously, do you really want to see Harlan Williams or David Cross try and play Curly? How about Dane Cook as Moe? Dax Shephard as Shemp? The horror.

But a Three Stooges movie has long been kicking around in various levels of development hell. Nothing has ever come at it, leaving room for First Look Studios to now step in buy the rights to a Stooges film. Variety says they plan to start pushing ahead on a Stooges movie. While at Warner Brothers it was planned with the Farrelly brothers writing and directing the flick, who knows if that'll happen now.

Now if this were 1998, the prospect of a Three Stooges movie directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly might be something to hunger for. Unfortunately it's 2006, five years after the Farrelly's ceased to be relevant. They're no longer the raunchy purveyors of slapstick comedies like Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, and There's Something About Mary. These are the kinder, gentler, unfunny Farrellys. The guys who make romantic comedies with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. The producers of uplifting films approved by the Special Olympics. They're a long way off from throwing a pie in someone's face... so maybe this is for the best.

The plan was though, for the Farrellys to contemporize the Stooges while staying true to the flavor of the original. The script is apparently already finished, having been penned for Warners back when they still held the rights to Moe, Larry, and Curly.

Of course you've got to wonder, if the script was so great why did the WB let their rights to the Stooges lapse? Where will it end up now? Wait and see.