Sean Penn leaves the Stooges movie

Thinking you’d be seeing Sean Penn as Larry in the Farrellys’ Three Stooges film? Think again – he’s decided to ditch the film as part of a sabbatical.

The Farrelly brothers will now have to find someone else to fill the iconic comedy role alongside Jim Carrey (Curly) and Benicio Del Toro (Moe).

The reason? Penn apparently wants to focus on his family, so he’s also ditching Asger Leth’s movie crime drama Cartel, which means the filmmakers are now rushing to recast the part.

But if you’re itching to see this year’s Oscar winner on screen again, fear not – he has Doug Liman’s based-on-fact Valerie Plame drama Fair Game and Terrence Malick’s Tree Of Life already in the can.

[Source: Variety ]

Is this good or awful news for the Stooges film? Tell us…

Freelance Journalist

James White is a freelance journalist who has been covering film and TV for over two decades. In that time, James has written for a wide variety of publications including Total Film and SFX. He has also worked for BAFTA and on ODEON's in-cinema magazine.