Well a small portion of this news was rumored awhile back, and I thought we'd heard the last of it, but today comes official word that Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro are in line to take on the roles of The Three Stooges in a Farrelly Brothers film about the classic comedic trio.

I'll just let that soak in for a second. Good? Okay...this news isn't necessarily disheartening for anyone looking forward to a movie about The Three Stooges, but honestly it's just an odd assembly of actors. Let's break it down by actor:

Sean Penn. Fresh off his Oscar winning role in Gus Van Sant's Milk, Penn's not exactly the funniest of actors, but he's taking on the role of frizzy haired stooge Larry. The last genuinely funny role he had was as the now iconic surfer dude Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High (unless of course you count I Am Sam, but that's just mean). While a lot of people don't have faith in his comedic abilities, I think it's a great chance for him to show what he's got, and I really don't doubt that he could pull it off despite lack of comedy experience.

Jim Carrey. After his not-so-comedic comedy run with Yes, Man last year, Carrey's got a lot to prove in my book. Certainly gaining 40 pounds to take on the hefty role of my personal favorite stooge Curly is a good way to get my attention (and that's exactly what Carrey is doing), but it's definitely going to be an uphill struggle to truly convince me. Carrey's got slapstick down, and great comedic timing and performances behind him, but I'm going to have to wait to see a trailer before I back this choice completely.

Benicio Del Toro. This for me is the most out-of-left-field decision. He might look like the bowl-cutted Moe, but the only vaguely funny role that Del Toro has had was his turn in Guy Ritchie's Snatch (no, not Madonna), and maybe in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but that's stretching it. And besides that's a whole different tone of comedy than what we're going to see come from the stooges.

Combine all this uncertainty and craziness with the fact that The Farrelly Brothers are helming this movie and they haven't had a decent film since 1998's There's Something About Mary (arguably 2000's Me, Myself and Irene) and you've got yourself one hell of a clusterf*ck. The film isn't going to be a biopic, but a straight comedy, which puts even more weight on the Farrelly's to deliver. Let's hope they wrote the majority of this script back when they still had the funny in them.

I'm all for giving this movie a chance, if anything just because if brings these actors together in an unlikely comedic team, but I just don't know if that's going to be enough for audiences who probably don't even know who The Three Stooges are. What do you guys think?