The film industry has never had its shortage when it came to music documentaries and musician biopics. Some of the greats off all musical genres have been honored through the creativity of film. Except for one genre, the song parody. Well folks, all that is about to change as one name is finally going to get his shine!
Daniel Radcliffe (The Lost City, Harry Potter franchise) has been tapped to play musician “Weird Al” Yankovic in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a Roku Original biopic from Funny Or Die and Tango that will be available for streaming exclusively on The Roku Channel.
"Weird" Al Yankovic was known for hilariously switching up lyrics and parodying the works of popular musical contemporaries, like Madonna, Michael Jackson and even Coolio. He is also the biggest-selling comedy recording artist of all time. A five-time Grammy winner, his 2014 release Mandatory Fun was the first comedy album in history to debut at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200. He is one of only three artists to land top 40 hits in each of the last four decades—the others being Michael Jackson and Madonna.
The Yankovic biopic promises to explore every facet of his life, from his childhood through his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon,” while touching on his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle.
“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. 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.”
said Yankovic.
Al is producing alongside Mike Farah, Joe Farrell and Whitney Hodack for Funny Or Die, and Tim Headington, Lia Buman and Max Silva for Tango. Appel is exec producing with Funny Or Die’s Henry Muñoz III and Tango’s Neil Shah. Production will kick off in Los Angeles early next month