My take is they need money so that "ones" will release footage for this.
Can this be true? The son of Moe Howard does not have the rights to the Stooges? ... I know this is going to be a C3 production... I thought they won the rights to the Stooges.
The films are owned and
Copyrighted by the studio(s). C3 owns the
Trademark to the Three Stooges, not the films. C3's property Trademark (eff. 1959) does not in any way supersede or infringe Sony's (Columbia) property Copyrights to the films.
The Paul Howard project is a production of Frank Basile, with Paul. C3's role is that of a licensor, giving Frank and Paul permission to market a product that uses the name and likenesses of the Stooges... if C3 receives a credit (e.g., Exec. Producer), that's a condition of the license.
If Basile, C3, or anyone else wants to use copyrighted footage that belongs to Sony... YES, they have to receive permission and pay for that service.