HOLLYWOOD, CA — What do Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, and Hugh Hefner have in common? According to Hollywood insider buzz, the first two men are in hot competition to portray the third in an in-development biopic set for release in 2009 – the year Hefner turns 83. Directing the story of the Playboy magazine mastermind is Brett Ratner, famous for films focusing on a different kind of “action” than Hefner is famous for inspiring. X-Men: The Last Stand, Red Dragon, and the Rush Hour trilogy have all converted into box office gold thanks to the Ratner touch. Daily Variety reports that John Hoffman has taken on the task of penning the film’s screenplay, since 8 Mile scriptwriter Scott Silver was unsuccessful in his attempt to create a Hefner-related musical and Oliver Stone abandoned the project after being unable to create a workable script in spite of multiple attempts.
Ratner and producer Brian Grazer apparently have confidence that Hoffman will have better luck at telling the story of the man who Ratner describes as having come from “a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution,” – without displeasing the man himself.
Having sold the rights to his story to Grazer years ago, Hefner recently signaled his official approval of the most recent manifestation of the Playboy film project from the Playboy mansion.
Founded in 1953 with only a handful of photos and a few hundred dollars, Playboy has showcased some of the most proclaimed beauties in America, including a young Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith, Pamela Anderson, Farrah Fawcett, and Drew Barrymore. In addition to the magazine’s influence on the progress of what is now called the Sexual Revolution, Ratner praised Playboy to Daily Variety for tackling social taboos even beyond female nudity, including civil rights and free speech, featuring James Brown on Playboy After Dark when national television simply did not give attention to black performers.
Ratner’s vision for Playboy is ambitious. “I want to show it all,” he explains. “From the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him.”
Which presents the obvious question: who will play “him?”
Popular opinion among those who speculate on such things believe that although both the equally unlikely Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise are under consideration, the latter will ultimately strut his stuff as the men’s magazine mogul. ActressArchives.com speculates that the star studded cast may also include Lindsay Lohan.
