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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Can Stooges Stage Crowdfunded Comeback?

C3 Entertainment Inc. is calling all knuckleheads with a nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. The Glendale licensing company of the Three Stooges has a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for its newest film, “The Three Little Stooges.” Earl Benjamin, chief executive at C3, said crowdfunding was the perfect way to get the fan base of the Stooges, which carries over from grandparents to parents to children, to participate in the movie. “For $100 you get to be part of something that’s great,” Benjamin said. “If it’s good, and we think it will be, we’ll make more of them.” The crowdfunding campaign is set to end Sept. 19 but Benjamin said it is likely to be extended for a few more weeks. Benjamin called the film, due to go into production this fall with a release of between summer and winter of next year, a feel-good movie with the Stooges as underdogs who screw everything up. “Through the process of trying to do good they usually make things worse but in the end things turn out OK, notwithstanding the problems they cause along the way,” Benjamin explained. The film’s premise involves the boys going to a ritzy private school where they cause mischief. It is set in contemporary times and features a female character, Izzy, who is almost like a fourth Stooge, Benjamin said. C3 Entertainment, then known as Comedy III Productions Inc., was started in 1959 by Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Joe DeRita to protect and license the legacy and assets of the group. Starting in the late 1930s, the classic Stooge lineup that included Curly Howard along with brother Moe Howard and Larry Fine, began their film career that would stretch to 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures. The shorts later gained a new life through television syndication starting in the late 1950s. The trio, which also included at various times Shemp Howard and Joe Besser, would also make feature films. Heirs to the Stooges are still actively involved with C3. Benjamin and his brother Robert are stepsons of Curly Joe DeRita, who took over for Curly Howard as one of the Stooges. Eric Lamond, the company’s vice president of brand management and strategic planning, is the grandson of Larry Fine. Benjamin said the appeal of the Stooges lies in their timeless, physical, slapstick humor. But the challenge the company faces is making sure its young actors have the feel, tone and sound to come across authentically as the Stooges. “We feel the only way to harness all of the value in the property of the Three Stooges is to be true to the brand,” Benjamin added. Better Mousetrappe Mousetrappe, a production company for media used at theme parks and cultural attractions, has launched a marketing campaign to promote the company’s capabilities. Co-founder and Creative Director Daren Ulmer said the Burbank firm has a strong reputation for its projection mapping work – the display of images on large surfaces, such as at Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World – but now potential clients are becoming aware of the other work it does. “That is the focus of the campaign,” Ulmer said. “To understand we are an industry leader of complex integration both creatively and technically of media.” The campaign is summed up in the tagline “Shifting Perspectives.” Ulmer said the tagline has multiple meanings, including Mousetrappe’s work in a three-dimensional experiences showing multiple points of view. An example of the company’s use of new technologies is the recently opened film project for Ferrari Land at the PortAventura theme park outside Barcelona, Spain. The film “Flying Dreams” follows classic Ferrari grand touring cars as they travel around the world, including drives through Monaco, Russia, China and the Monument Valley along the Arizona-Utah border. To create the film, Mousetrappe used a drone that could fly at up to 60 miles per hour sometimes just 5 feet above the ground, Ulmer said. The companion attraction to “Flying Dreams” is “Racing Legends,” a film also made with a drone that is projected in a dome in which park visitors sit in a motion-based simulator that follows Ferrari race cars from various eras starting in 1919. Mousetrappe also designed the queuing and pre-show area using mapping and projected elements that set up the story of getting into a Ferrari race car and traveling around the world. New projects that Mousetrappe is working on include an attraction for the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and involvement with several theme park projects in China, an emerging market of opportunity. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or [email protected].

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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