I'd dismiss that as an accident if it wasn't for the fact that "Curly" was mentioned as a "creator" of the Stooge characters. The folks at "comingsoon" ought to get to know the product!!!
"comingsoon.net" isn't a news service. Just an "fyi"-type website, that posted an abridged version of that misleading news item, which appeared in Oct. 12's
Daily Variety.
Pamela McClintock was the
Variety writer, and
her source was a press release given to
Variety by the film's current producing parties, First Look Pictures and
C3 Entertainment.
C3 posted the
Variety news item on their very own website,
verbatim with the
erroneous "Curly Howard" reference (@ today 10/13).
C3's management, aka the Benjamin brothers (the DeRita family heirs), know that Jerome "Curly" Howard was not a C3 founding partner. The history of C3 is well-known to the DeRita heirs, and they've used that history often in their past 13-year-long love affair with Stooge-related litigations.
Two possibilities come to mind, in ref. to C3's press release...
- Someone at C3 made a royal screw-up, ref. Comedy III's founding information... damage control cleanup is pending.
- Or, the DeRita family has long asserted that they own the "Curly" name, likeness and trademark, and this hints at some forthcoming litigious angle(s) on that claim.
Looks like the WB smartened up and realized this movie has bomb written all over it.
WB smartened up about three years ago; they dropped their option sometime in 2003.
The 2004
New Yorker Magazine promo piece on the movie was part of a public relations campaign to reignite interest in the movie project, and find another producing partner. After the
New Yorker article hit the stands and promoted Russell Crowe and Benicio Del Toro as possible stooges, both actors were quick to say that they passed on the project.
What's funny is that when I first heard about this movie, they said it will be out by the summer of 2004.
The project was first announced by C3 & WB in Spring 2001, for a 2002 release.
