Daniel Radcliffe to play musician 'Weird Al' Yankovic in biopic
Hollywood star Daniel Radcliffe will soon greet us with The Lost City. But now we have information about his next. The star of the Harry Potter franchise is all set to step into the shoes of five-time Grammy Award-winning musician "Weird Al" Yankovic in the latter's biopic. Titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the biopic will be available to stream on The Roku Channel.
Production set to begin early February
Yankovic has written the film alongside Eric Appel, with the latter taking up the direction duties, too. Notably, Appel has previously directed a short film by the same name. Production studios Funny or Die and Tango are backing the feature. Reportedly, shooting will begin in early February in Los Angeles. Yankovic wrote a cheeky tweet that said, "So...I'm making a movie," on January 18.
The musician had this to say about Radcliffe playing him
Per a press release, the film "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." Speaking about Radcliffe, Yankovic amusingly said: "I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for."
Weird Al is most commonly known for his comedy numbers
The 62-year-old American singer is mostly known for his parody of his contemporaries' songs. He happens to be the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time with his 2014 offering Mandatory Fun becoming the first comedy album ever to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 chart. It'll be interesting to see how The Boy Who Lived presents the musician onscreen.
Meanwhile, Radcliffe plays eccentric billionaire in 'The Lost City'
Coming to the star's other releases, Radcliffe will be seen playing an "eccentric billionaire" on the adventure comedy The Lost City. Starring alongside Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, it will be Radcliffe's character that sends the other leads on the hunt for gold in the fabled Lost City. The movie comes out in March. Radcliffe recently appeared in Harry Potter's 20th-anniversary reunion special.
