Next Stooges stage

First Look slapped with feature rights

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

Winterstern

First Look Studios has struck a deal to bring Moe, Larry and Curly back to the big screen.

Henry Winterstern's First Look Studios has picked up the film rights to "The Three Stooges," but bringing Larry, Moe and Curly to the bigscreen will be no laughing matter.

In development for years, project was most recently set up at Warner Bros. Pictures, with the Farrelly brothers penning the script and attached to direct. Studio, however, let the option lapse.

First Look struck the deal with rights holder C3 Entertainment, founded in 1959 by Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Jerome "Curly" Howard, creators of the Stooge characters.

First Look, working with C3 Entertainment, said it intends to stay true to the flavor of the original Stooges, who created their own brand of slapstick.

Those over the years trying to make a "Stooges" feature -- including Mel Brooks -- have often been stymied over casting.

C3 Entertainment prexy-CEO Earl Benjamin said he loves the contemporized screenplay the Farrelly brothers penned with Mike Ceronne for Warners featuring the Moe, Larry and Curly characters.

"Various people have had various ideas, but we want to keep the traditional wild-and-crazy aspect," Benjamin said. "We've been talking to a lot of the studios, but Henry Winterstern gets it."

Before Warners, the project was set up at Columbia, home of the classic Stooges two-reelers. The Stooges shorts and films are still broadcast around the globe on cable and syndicated television. C3 has a syndie pact with Sony Pictures Television.

First Look, which is in theaters with "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," has been bolstering its exec and production ranks, including bringing in industry veteran Stuart Ford to serve as prexy of First Look Intl. and former Paramount Classics co-prexy Ruth Vitale as prexy of First Look Pictures.