The life of Hugh Hefner is certainly one tailor-made for a salacious silver-screen adaptation but, up until this point, we’ve not seen it put under the microscope in any significant way. Brett Ratner had been attached to helm a biopic a few years back for Universal but, with things never coming together, Warner Bros. recently took over the now helmer-less project. It’s unclear if that project is the one in question here but it looks like the Playboy founder himself is currently working with a royalty-approved scribe, with Hefner tweeting that he “had a good meeting today with screen writer Peter Morgan discussing a film about my life.”
Morgan is no stranger to biopics of larger-than-life figures having tackled characters such as Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon and David Frost for such helmers as Ron Howard, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper and Kevin MacDonald and, most recently, he wrote the brewing Freddie Mercury flick that has Sacha Baron Cohen attached to star. Fitting the eventful life of the Hef into a feature film is no easy task but we’re sure Morgan — if he truly is scripting — will be up for the task considering his resume.
The involvement of the scribe in whatever capacity, however, is a step in the right direction. Morgan has been working with an array of quality helmers and a juicy script by him about a character like Hef is sure to attract many. As for who could play the man? James Franco recently cameoed in “Lovelace” as the magazine entrepenuer but Hef himself has already thrown in his own two cents previously approving Robert Downey Jr. and even going as far as noting that the two have “talked about it and it is a very real possibility.” Three years on, we’re not sure that’s still the case especially with Downey Jr. already playing a playboy in the “Iron Man” films but, damn, that would be massive.