Hugh Hefner’s going to be hitting 86 years old this year, and he’s obviously lived quite a life.
Hefner’s saga is a natural one for a movie, and there was at least one attempt to turn his life into a film at Universal, with Robert Downey Jr and Hugh Jackman considered to play him, but it went nowhere.
Now Deadline reports a Hugh Hefner Playboy biopic is set up at Warner Brothers with Jerry Weintraub producing. Interestingly enough, Weintraub is the legendary Hollywood character who promoted Elvis and Sinatra back in the day, and most recently produced the Ocean’s 11 series.
Deadline also asked Weintraub about some interesting word of mouth rumors, that Steve Kloves, who wrote the screenplays for the Harry Potter series, would pen the script for the Hefner film, but Weintraub denied it.
A Hefner movie is a project many would want to be involved in. I’m sure many actors will line up for the opportunity to play Hef, and I’m also sure many directors would also line up to helm the film.
It won’t be hard to guess what the movie will be like, a hagiography that will present Hefner as the misunderstood savior of the first amendment who changed the world via the sexual revolution, one of the most important men of the 20th century, etc.
Still, even with a self-serving spin, a Hefner movie could be very entertaining if done right, especially if the film shows the cultural changes that came in the second half of the twentieth century from Hugh’s point of view.
And if Steve Kloves, who adapted the Harry Potter novels for the big screen ends up telling the story, well, the mind boggles…
