Casting Bits: Larry David As A Nun In 'The Three Stooges;' Armie Hammer Attached To '2:22;' Frank Grillo In 'Lay The Favorite'

Want to see Larry David play a nun? How about a nun named Mother Mengele? Then you'll need a ticked for the Farrelly Brothers' The Three Stooges. Larry David was rumored to play one of the Stooges for some time, but now he'll be "the unfortunate nun who runs the orphanage where the Stooges grow up and learn to create mayhem." This particular casting is the best thing about the movie so far, and has probably earned my ticket no matter what else I read or see about it.

As for the rest of the cast, Chris Diamantopoulos will play Moe, Will Sasso will be Curly, and Sean Hayes is Larry. Jane Lynch is Mother Superior, another nun at the orphanage, and Sofia Vergara plays a femme fatale. [Deadline]

After the break, Armie Hammer is attached to a new thriller and the gambling comedy/memoir Lay the Favorite gets a new man.

As Cannes approaches, we're going to start hearing about a lot of films that have actors attached in the hopes of pulling together financing via the Cannes sales market. One of these is 2:22, a 'psychological thriller' that now has Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) attached to star as an air traffic controller who is led into a predicament via several unusual factors: a double murder, a near-midair collision between two planes, and a blindingly bright light that appears at 2:22 one day. How do those things all come together? Here's more plot from the same press release that announces a planned shoot in Australia later this year:

... a rollercoaster thriller that centers on Dylan (Hammer) an air traffic controller who is given a jolt when he narrowly escapes being responsible for a mid air collision between two passenger planes.  Caused by a mysterious blinding light that happened at 2:22, these strange occurrences continue and lead Dylan to meet Sarah, with whom he feels inexplicably linked. Together the two discover uncanny similarities with their current predicament and a double murder committed a generation ago. With a grim fate looming, Dylan must solve the mystery of 2:22 to preserve a love whose second chance has finally come.

Todd Stein and Nathan Parker co-wrote (the latter wrote Moon — yay! — and the Jason Statham movie Blitz) and Paul Currie directs, should the film actually happen. Will this really come together with Armie Hammer in the lead? No idea about that, but we'll be following it.

Finally, Frank Grillo, from The Gates, has signed on to Lay the Favorite, the gambling comedy that already features Rebecca Hall as Beth Raymer, "a woman who fell into professional gambling in Las Vegas," and Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Timberlake and Joshua Jackson. Frank Grillo will be a would-be ladies man and part of a crew of gamblers led by Bruce Willis. Stephen Frears directs from a script by D.V. DeVincentis based on Beth Raymer's memoir. The basic plot description:

A dramedy centered on a thirtysomething woman who becomes involved with a group of geeky fiftyish men who have found a way to work the sportsbook system in Las Vegas to their advantage.

[THR]