With director Todd Phillips developing a biopic on the late, great actor-comedian John Belushi, the lead role was inevitably going to be linked to Phillips’ ‘Hangover’ star and 2009’s breakout success story, Zach Galifianakis.
Speaking with MTV, however, the actor has revealed that while talks did take place in some shape or form regarding him potentially taking up the role, it does looks like he has passed.
“We spoke about it a while back, but not recently,” Galifianakis recalled. “No I don’t think [it’ll be happening]. That’s a little bit… I could play maybe the guy from ‘Grizzly Adams.’ You know that story?” the actor joked before hilariously breaking into a character; check out the clip below.
Galifianakis has always been a critic of celebrity culture so it’s no surprise really that he’s averse to putting himself in the skin of a fellow actor-comedian whose rise to fame was matched only by his tragic downfall. It remains to be seen where Phillips will head now with several actors already name-dropped as potential contenders including Jack Black, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Ethan Suplee and Tyler Labine; pretty much anyone from the “overweight comedy actor” brigade.
That said, it’ll probably be a while yet before this project even sees the light of day — Steve Conrad (“The Weather Man,” “The Pursuit of Happyness”) was recruited to scribe the biopic but won’t begin until he finishes up with “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” which has Gore Verbinski at the helm.