They are making a Bill Hicks biopic and Russell Crowe would like to direct

I'm gonna say this right now: What you're about to read is a wonderful idea. Russell Crowe, whose name was thrown around at one point to play late comedian Bill Hicks in a biopic, has now said he'd rather make his directorial debut with a different actor in the leading role. There's something about that turn of events that seems so classy for some weird reason, but it also makes me think that Crowe is a big Bill Hicks fan, and I love finding out that famous people are fans of things. But back in reality-land: production on this movie could start as soon as early 2013. Casting will certainly be a very interesting process, and that coveted role will most likely go to a British guy. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

A movie about Bill Hicks, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 when he was just 32, has been in the works for a while, going back to when Crowe was a contender to play him himself. But now, after the screenplay has gone through the ringer a few times, Crowe is a little old (48) to play Hicks (though he probably would have been great). In a rare display of non-vanity, however, the Oscar-winner still seems very attached to this project (both in the emotional, passionate sense and the professional, official sense) and wants to step behind the camera to see Hicks' story told.

Already the subject of a documentary (American: The Bill Hicks Story), Hicks began his standup career when he was 16 years old and cultivated a huge fan base in the UK in the 1980s and early 1990s. More of a sleeper hit on our side of the pond, he touched on all those subjects you're not supposed to talk about at dinner when your family is around: religion, politics, and drugs, among other things. But he was also whip smart about philosophy, consumer culture, history, and other subjects that you had no idea could be funny. Hicks played on what other people found uncomfortable, as most comedians do. But unlike some less skilled comedians, he was one of the best at executing such material.

Including the time he was censored from Late Show With David Letterman (Letterman pulled Hicks' entire set from the show's final edit in 1993, but invited the comedian's mother to the show in 2009 and played the whole thing on the air as an apology) and the ongoing controversy of whether or not Denis Leary stole material from him, the reason there will be a movie about Bill Hicks is because, as was the case with Andy Kaufman, we didn't have enough time with him on Earth and we want more. And we want something current. Mark Staufer, a longtime friend of Crowe, is writing the screenplay. Crowe is new to directing features, having only ever done short-form material for his wife.

I just like to think about Russell Crowe being a comedy fan. That's cool.

No word on casting for the role of Hicks, but one logical name we can expect to hear is that of UK actor Chas Early, who played Hicks in the 2004 one-man show Bill Hicks: Slight Return. (See? British guy.)

Russell Crowe to direct rather than star in Bill Hicks biopic [/Film]

When she isn't nerding out that the holidays are coming, Jamie is a reader at Monday Night Fan Fiction at Fontana's in Chinatown, NYC (next date: TBA, 7:00 PM). All work is original, written by the readers, so if you have a brilliant fanfic idea stuck in your head, send it via Twitter: @jamielikesthis

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noah django

huh, timely post. my roommate and I watched American: The Bill Hicks Story on netflix thursday night. amazing man, amazing comedy, amazing ideas.
ehdubkay

they should tap leary for the starring role. he already has the material down pat.. .heyooooooo!
http://twitter.com/kirkfontenot kirkfontenot

Pretty much the only role I’m interested in seeing Russell Crowe play is a hotel clerk who gets hit in the face by a real asshole wielding a phone.
- http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch
  
  Oh come on, the guy wasn’t seriously hurt, Crowe cooperated with the police, apologized, and settled a civil suit in court. It’s not like some heinous Polanski shit, like some brand he should carry around for the rest of his live-long days. We all make mistakes.
- grimc
  
  From what I recall is that Crowe’s kid was sick and he was trying to call him but the hotel phone system was down. The clerk refused to help, dismissed him with a, “Whatever” and that’s when Crowe threw the phone.
  
  Not that I’m defending the phone-throw, but having stayed at the Mercer Hotel and experienced some staff assholery there, I’m not inclined to feel too badly for the desk clerk.
- teapot
  
  Agreed.. for the apologists: it’s not like he doesn’t have a reputation for that kind of behaviour.
  
  Plus I’m not a big fan that he’d made a huge deal out of how the rugby team he owns wasn’t going to have connections with companies who profit from gambling. What’s their lead sponsor for the 2012 season? Star City Casino. Ethics fail, bud.
- princeminski
  
  Don’t you EVER let go of a celebrity’s minor screw-up. You’re superior to Russell Crowe in every way.
Petzl

Seems to me biopics of modern comedians are recipes for disaster. We know who they are so intimately, their style is so uniquely theirs (Andy Kaufman, John Belushi), that when the “impostor” appears, it’s impossible to suspend disbelief.
- luisella
  
  Agree, they should make documentaries instead. (Milos Forman in particular seems to have the uncanny ability of edulcorating every subject that he touches with a film).
- Teller
  
  Thought Fosse did a nice job with Lenny Bruce – among the first of the moderns.
  - luisella
    
    You mean that propaganda thing with Dustin Hoffman glorifying family values?
    - Teller
      
      Uh, maybe I saw a different film.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      No, that was Midnight Cowboy.
      - Teller
        
        Or Kramer vs Streeper.
Damien

Play From Your Fucking Heart
bjacques

The old Comedy Workshop that was the stomping grounds of Bill and the rest of the Texas Outlaw Comics once stood at Westheimer and San Felipe. It’s gone, alas, replaced by a Petco.

But I look forward to seeing it again, in its slightly shabby glory on the screen.
- Pedantic Douchebag
  
  It’s wasn’t where the PetCo is, it’s now a dry cleaners.
luisella

It’s religion, politics and sex. And turds. And they have been the prime topics of satire long before that family dinners were invented.
Marco Polo

I’ve always thought British comedian Matt Berry (Snuff Box, Darkplace, IT Crowd) would be a great Bill Hicks if a biopic was ever done. Very different comedians… maybe he could pull it off. Both are awesome though.
luisella

It’s interesting to explore why it’s in the UK that an hardcore satirist like Bill Hicks found the strongest fanbase.

The US has long been the most fertile territory for political satire to flourish (they kicked the british monarchy’s ass a long time ago, and got a constitution with a strong free speech amendment. And in the 1932 they gave birth to Paul Krassner), while UK culture sickens its people with submission to monarchy and nobility, and the most daring wit it can produce is comedy of manners. So the UK audience craves more for the breath of fresh air that is hardcore satire on religion, politics, sex and death.

God Fu©k the Queen, the fascist regime!
- http://twitter.com/SamuelAgboola Samuel Agboola
  
  Wow.
  
  1. The people who ‘…kicked the british (sic) monarchy’s ass…” were British subjects. The indoctrination didn’t seem to take there.
  2. The most daring comedy the UK produces include ‘The Goons’ (you may be more familiar with their cover band “Monty Python”) and Chris Morris. No one in the US is close to Morris or Armando Iannucci in making a frontal attack on social mores. The Goons were military veterans who invented a comedy still being mined today by ‘alternative’ North American troupes venerated as avant garde, and The Goon’s did it all over 60 years ago.
  3. Hicks was loved in the UK because he was funny, smart and frequently dead-on regarding uncomfortable truths. He was a niche act in the US for the same reasons.
  
  I love the US but in a country where children are taught at school to venerate a flag, and in which history up until University is an agreed on set of lies designed to promote American exceptionalism you have some gall to characterize the UK as servile to monarchy and nobility.
  
  You’re misinformed in a stereotypically American way.
  - luisella
    
    Chris Morris has turned reactionary. In his last film he targets muslims instead of the political status quo.
    - http://twitter.com/TPSissons Thomas Sissons
      
      Saying Four Lions targets muslims is like saying Snow White targets dwarves. Yes the characters are muslim, but the film is about the human element of extremism, the comedy inherent in ordinary people who have wives and jobs and stub their toe in the dark trying to do this ridiculous thing. I don’t think it’s reactionary to condemn suicide bombers, whatever their creed, and the film actually paints them in a very sympathetic light. Also it’s fucking hilarious.
  - princeminski
    
    You said everything I wanted to say but better.
- http://eitherorbored.wordpress.com/ Adam Cheshire
  
  What Samuel said but also, for a country that doesn’t have a monarchy, it certainly seems that the US are a little nuts for royalty of all descriptions.
- EvilTerran
  
  UK culture sickens its people with submission to monarchy and nobility
  
  It does? As a Brit, I’d never noticed. We treat our royals like every other famous-cos-daddy’s-famous celebrity — ignore them, mock them, or at best take a passing interest. And the “nobility”? We hate ‘em. Tax-dodging rent-seeking toffee-nosed bastards, and so say all of us!
  
  Maybe I’ve just forgotten the bit where they made us take part in a patriotic propaganda ritual every day at school.
  
  Oh wait, that’s the US.
http://www.facebook.com/stephen.m.moran Stephen Moran

I wonder what Bill Hick’s would think about “30 Odd Foot of Grunts”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1DRTnP0gY8
nachoproblem

Russel Crowe could still be brilliant as Bill Hicks, all he needs is a time machine. He should do a Kickstarter for say, 80 trillion dollars and see where that goes. Although, bringing his 32-year-old self up to speed on things could be problematic.
BunnyShank

It was weird when what’s his name comic made all that offense with his rape “joke” at a heckler and no one, mentioned that Bill Hicks made the same “joke” at a heckler.
- teapot
  
  Prove it. I’ve heard plenty of Bill Hicks stuff and I’ve never heard him say anything like what you’ve claimed.
http://twitter.com/posty Derek

I think they’d have a fighting chance if they chose Chas Early. Having seen him in Slight Return personally at the fringe. The guy gets it, and is impeccable – I was very young when bill died – was the closest I’d ever come to seeing him in person. I’ve seen all of bills work – Chas is very true to the spirit and the look and the intensity.
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

BunnyShank – That’s pretty weird alright. But
a) Hicks was a vastly more talented, funnier comedian who didn’t rely on cheap, button-pushing shock tactics to prop up a witless act
and
b) can you provide any evidence that Hicks made the same “joke” to a heckler? I’m aware of him saying extremely nasty things to hecklers (under different circumstances) but I don’t recall him saying anything like that.
- BunnyShank
  
  Hi Tristan, it is probably the one you are thinking of, the “I have a c**t rant” with the “sir will you put your dick in her mouth and shut her up”. Then he plans to murder the heckler. He continues with material about forcing blow jobs when a woman wants to stop. I don’t really know what what’s his face new guy said, I wasn’t there, but I honestly thought when that all blew up a couple weeks ago, it was the same sort of situation, heckler/comedian, and he was trying to hearken back to this particular display of rage towards a heckler from Bill Hicks.
  - retchdog
    
    i said it then, and i’ll say it again. to get away with that shit you have to be in the top 1%. hicks was, tosh ain’t. end of story.
  - teapot
    
    Mr. Tosh’s premise — that rape jokes were funny — earned a rebuke from a woman shouting, “Rape jokes are never funny!” He responded: “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by, like five guys right now?”
    NYT
    
    Bill Hick’s “c**t” rant was because some stupid drunk woman kept interrupting him during his bit. It wasn’t because she was offended by his material.. she was just a drunk loudmouth and the whole reason he said c**t was to allude to her sex.
    
    These are not analogous situations.
    - BunnyShank
      
      Its nice, for me, to be reading comments long enough at Boing Boing to know when to not clarify others’ critical thinking skills. Best of luck.
LogrusZed

So how are the going to market and advertize this?
michaeldblack

You would need someone young enough to play him when he was first performing, but old enough to play him through 32. Call me crazy, but I think Michael Angarano could nail this one.
http://twitter.com/SamuelAgboola Samuel Agboola

As for casting, you don’t need a great comedian, you need a great actor. Tom Hardy has the build, chops, age and presence imho.
http://twitter.com/CherMSW Cher Thomason

I was hoping a Sam Kinison biopic with Dan Fogler would get made first.
Mazoola

I’m all for an Adam Sandler biopic if it means we get to kill him first….
senorglory

Jamie Kennedy.
http://profile.yahoo.com/5KDXOSBEPPO3YLPUEEF7FOIHGU talby0

Fantasy casting for the biopic? How about Vincent Kartheiser?
Phill Hunt

No, no. A million times no. Not Russell Crowe as Bill Hicks. Just no…
http://profile.yahoo.com/KNEBRUXIHJFQ5J3HGLZUA4477U David

I always thought that John Cusack would be an ideal choice to play Bill Hicks. He’s enough of a “Hollywood name” to attract an audience that might not be familiar with Bill’s work already, and with some cotton balls in his cheeks there’d be a pretty strong resemblance…
Cynical

Surprised noone has mentioned Doug Stanhope. He’s basically Bill Hicks reincarnated and slightly more bitter.
http://profiles.google.com/cliff1969 Cliff Hesby

‘Ongoing controversy’? Isn’t this a bit weasel wordish? there’s really no ambiguity that Leary ripped off Hicks wholesale.
http://profiles.google.com/keithdtyler Keith Tyler

A Brit? Seriously? First off, isn’t Crowe Aussie? And second, is David Duchovny really not available? I had to pitch a fit during a trivia round identifying pictures of comedians in order to keep my GF from putting Duchovny down for the classic picture of Hicks. I don’t think it’s an isolated incident.