“Weird Al” Yankovic — the prolific musician behind humorous songs like “Eat It” and “Amish Paradise”— is getting the biopic treatment with help from Daniel Radcliffe.
Radcliffe will star as the five-time Grammy winner in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The description for the film says it “holds nothing back, exploring every facet of Yankovic’s life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like ‘Eat It’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story takes audiences on a truly unbelievable journey through Yankovic’s life and career, from gifted child prodigy to the greatest musical legend of all time.”
Yankovic and Eric Appel penned the screenplay, with Appel directing the film and executive producing. Funny Or Die and Tango are producing the feature, which begins filming in Los Angeles in early February. (Funny or Die, Yankovic, Appel produced a fake trailer in 2010 for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story that saw Aaron Paul star as Yankovic.)
The feature will be available exclusively on The Roku Channel.
“When my last movie UHF came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I’m very happy to say we’re on schedule,” said Yankovic. “And I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for.”
Added Appel: “When Weird Al first sat me down against my will and told me his life story, I didn’t believe any of it, but I knew that we had to make a movie about it.”
“There clearly aren’t enough biopic movies about famous musicians and we were excited to shine a light on the incredibly true, unexaggerated story of Weird Al,” said Colin Davis, Roku’s head of original scripted programming. “This is sincerely the ultimate combination of talent, creativity, and friends, coming together to make something genuinely funny and we could not be prouder to call this film a Roku Original.”
Radcliffe, who is repped by the U.K.’s ARG and Felker Toczek, will next be seen in the Paramount comedy The Lost City, starring opposite Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
