Although the real question keeping Hollywood awake in 2012 is “Does Winston Wolf clean up dead hookers on Yom Kippur?”, the fine folks over at HitFix have put forth a handful of queries of varying importance which filmmakers, studios and fans might have on their minds this year. It’s their 15 Questions Keeping Hollywood Awake in 2012. With concerns from Lindsay Lohan’s possible last chance to Joss Whedon’s first real shot with The Avengers, it’s an intriguing list that might prove 2012 to be both an endlessly fascinating and completely irrelevant year in the stories behind the movies. Will Smith, Found Footage, Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises and more. HitFix has questions, and here are the answers:

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column that, tonight, is focused on a cornacopia of new Blu-ray release information. From James Bond to Jake Gittes, it’s going to be a beautiful year of high definition goodness. There is also non-Blu-ray news, for those who like variety. We begin tonight with a look at the box for Bond 50, the upcoming release of the Golden Anniversary Blu-ray edition of all 22 James Bond films on Blu-ray for the first time as one complete offering. MGM and Fox laid out plans at CES today, which included making it available for pre-order right now. Put simply, it’s beautiful. They even delivered a trailer, which I’ve included after the jump.

Possible introductory pieces of wordsmithery to lead off this post – “not worth nyuk-ing about!” or even “better than a poke in the eye!” or possibly a longer rife on the use of “just say Moe” as the film’s tagline. Yet all of those cracks at humor are rendered absolutely and starkly unnecessary by this first trailer for the Farrelly Brothers‘ The Three Stooges, which is so painfully unfunny that it makes even related humor feel useless. The Farrellys have been wanting to make a Stooges feature film for years, proclaiming it a passion project, but its journey to the screen has been filled with its own pratfalls and slams to the face – development delays and huge casting issues abounded. The film was originally rumored to star Jim Carrey, Benicico del Toro, and Sean Penn, but when they all dropped the project, other potential casting options were mentioned and reported, including Hank Azaria, Johnny Knoxville, Andy Samberg, and Shane Jacobson. Which doesn’t explain how we ended up with a cast that includes Chris Diamantopoulos as Moe Howard, Sean Hayes as Larry Fine, and Will Sasso as Curly Howard. And Snooki is there, because why not make something that looks terrible look even more bogglingly awful? If you don’t value your eyes, your soul, or the possibility that Hollywood would greenlight an original and creative project, check out the first trailer for The Three Stooges after the break.

Respect has to be given to anyone moving forward on a terrible idea with such gusto. The Three Stooges is a monumentally dumb idea, especially considering the legacy left by the trio in comedy, but if you’re going to blow the goat, you might as well go all out while doing it. The latest piece of absurdity comes from Deadline Poughkeepsie, which reports that Larry David will don the habit to play Mother Mengele for the picture. Because nothing says screwball comedy like dressing a Jewish man in a Catholic garb and giving him the last name of a Nazi who made lamps out of people. Instead of this, can’t The Farrelly Brothers just remake Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls or something?

What is Movie News After Dark? Tonight it’s a movie news column stunned by its author’s ability to find all that is cool and interesting in the world of film. Seriously, this might be the best one of these lot that he’s put together in over 150 tries. It’s almost as if he’s ready to graduate to a “mediocre” rating as a news aggregator. Then he can begin acquiring spells and executing more advanced quests before he can join a proper guild and go on raids. Gore Verbinski may finally have found his Lone Ranger in the form of The Social Network star Armie Hammer. He is currently in talks to take the lead alongside Johnny Depp, who’s already been cast as Tonto. He’s got the look (and damn, the voice as well), but the challenge for Hammer will be the fact that there’s only one character to play in the film. Unless Verbinski carries over the “multiple Jack Sparrow” sequences from his Pirates of the Caribbean work.

It’s unclear whether a Three Stooges biopic was ever a really good idea. The trio are the icons you don’t go messing around with (like in twenty years when a Monty Python biopic starts circling around) because it’s tough to get people to play geniuses. Even when you get insanely lucky with casting (like Jamal Woolard as Notorious B.I.G.), the result can still be a fairly average movie. So why try it? That’s a great question, but apparently it’s something that The Farrelly Brothers have to get out of their system. Unfortunately, we’ve seen in real time how difficult it can be to get a movie off the ground and what happens when you’re not quite sticking the landing. At one point, this film saw Jim Carrey, Benecio Del Toro, and Sean Penn attached – and that, absolutely, would have made for an interesting film. Maybe not a good one, but it would have been a train ride and/or wreck to remember. Now, the casting has been reduced to minor television stars. That’s not a pejorative at all. Television acting is difficult, but it’s not the same kind of acting that a film requires. In terms of sheer talent, it seems like the B team has been called off the benches. Will Sasso is already locked as Curly, and now Variety is reporting that Sean Hayes (from Will and Grace) will be playing Larry. This project was always a head-scratcher, but now it looks like compromise is going to kill [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a focused, coordinated strike upon the oppressive barrage of movie blogs who think you should really be reading 700 words on the latest third-tier casting rumors for the next Adam Shankman movie. We take all the interesting news and otherwise notable articles of the day and bring them together, in one place, where you can kick ass and gain knowledge quickly. It also includes some funny videos. Because everyone loves funny videos. With Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun finally getting to theaters (and iTunes — go watch it!), Canuxploitation is on its way. To celebrate, Quiet Earth asked Canadian grindhouse cinema expert Paul Corupe to write of Canuxploitation’s weidest, wildest Canadian exploitation movies. Yes.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s tired, sleepy and acutely aware of the fact that it is Friday, Friday, Friday. It also hates Rebecca Black, except for the censored version. That made it laugh. A very self-aware, singularity style laugh. Chuckle on, meat suits, your day will come. Tonight’s lead story is an interest piece about two legends: that Tolkien guy, who wrote a movie about little people that’s about to become the world’s biggest goddamn movie production, and Maurice Sendak, who once dreamed of wild things. What if Sendak had illustrated The Hobbit? The above image is the answer. It also makes for a very interesting essay by Tom DiTerlizzi.

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s holding out for a hero ’til the morning light. He’s gotta be sure, it’s gotta be soon, and he’s gotta be larger than life. We lead tonight with images from this evening’s episode of Community, which took a jaunt into Pulp Fiction territory and played around with some Tarantino aesthetic. I haven’t watched it yet, as I’m contractually obligated to watch it with my lady and I won’t see her until tomorrow night, but I’m told that it was a new high mark for the show.

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

What is Movie News After Dark? This is a question that I am almost never asked, but I will answer it for you anyway. Movie News After Dark is FSR’s late-night secretion, a column dedicated to all of the news stories that slip past our daytime editorial staff and make it into my curiously chubby RSS ‘flagged’ box. It will (but is not guaranteed to) include relevant movie news, links to insightful commentary and other film-related shenanigans. I may also throw in a link to something TV-related here or there. It will also serve as my place of record for being both charming and sharp-witted, but most likely I will be neither of the two. I write this stuff late at night, what do you expect?

You’ve stumbled upon Circle of Jerks, our sporadically published, weekly feature in which we ask the questions that really matter to our writers and readers. It’s a time to take a break from our busy lives and revel in the one thing that we all share: a deep, passionate love of movies. If you have a question you’d like answered by the FSR readers and staff, send us an email at editors@filmschoolrejects.com. What movie universe would actually want to live in? Susan C.

Like false reports of the last golden ticket being taken, a rumor went floating around through the world last week pinning Johnny Knoxville and Andy Samberg to the project as top contenders. Apparently they haven’t even auditioned. Peter Farrelly cleared up the air, telling EW that Three Stooges casting is still open to everyone – even those without any acting resumes. The project starts shooting in mid-April, so you’d better hustle, but if you’re dying to get two fingers shoved in your eyes, you’ve still got a chance at opening up that Wonka Bar and making your way into the factory.

The white water rafting trip through development that was The Three Stooges has landed The Farrelly Brothers (and all seven people waiting with goosebumps to see what will happen) here, in a world where they have no huge stars in their project. On the one hand, that’s a disaster. On the other, creating iconic characters can sometimes be easier with unknown actors. On that first hand, the casting director now has to deal with every moron that thinks he’s funny or does a “great Curly, I swear to God,” coming before them to prove their worth. With any luck, they’ll broadcast the worst and the most bizarre auditions American Idol style before the movie. Or maybe those terrible auditions are the movie. Either way, if you’d like to become the next Stooge, here’s what they are looking for.

After being passed from Columbia to Warners to MGM and now to Fox, The Three Stooges looked more like the ball in a rugby highlight than a passion project. It also caused a lot of head scratching when Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro were all involved. According to Deadline El Paso, that head scratching can continue (even though a new cast will need to be found) because the judge-approved MGM bankruptcy plan has caused the project to land in Fox’s lap with the Farrelly Brothers still on board to direct. On the one hand, it’s nice to see iconic relics of the Vaudeville generation getting a modern treatment. On the other, casting avatars for the spirit of Larry, Curly, and Moe will be almost as impossible as casting John Belushi for that promised biopic. Actually, it will be harder. Celebrating a life is one thing, but taking over the roles for a brand new fictional feature is another. Hopefully the Peter and Bobby Farrelly are both scratching their own heads (respectively) wondering who on the planet they can possibly rope into the roles. Also to consider: what does this mean for their long-fabled Happy the Hedgehog movie that the theaters keep teasing us about?

Oscar-winner and potential stooge Sean Penn has decided to take some time off, meaning that the Farrelly Brothers will have to find a new Larry and Universal will need to find a new lead for its thriller Cartel.

Earlier today Variety confirmed that MGM and the Farrelly brothers are closing in on their final cast for their upcoming comedy The Three Stooges. Now we’re interested to know what you think about it.

My battle to avoid printing this story comes to an end with me losing. Johnny Depp and Sean Penn are rumored for The Three Stooges. Probably not. But maybe. But probably not.

So much has been said over the years as to what it would take to revoke your man card. It could be anything from not watching the Super Bowl to not liking the latest Michael Bay action flick. But one of the few definitive male tests is the affinity for The Three Stooges.