In a highly competitive situation, New Line Cinema has landed the Chris Farley biopic starring Paul Walter Hauser and to be directed by Josh Gad, according to an insider with knowledge of the project.
Lorne Michaels and Erin David are producing via their Broadway video banner.
Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber will write the screenplay based on the New York Times best-selling biography “The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts” by Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby.
The project has the blessing of the Farley family.
The biopic marks the second major package Warner Bros. has landed this week after landing Margot Robbie vehicle “Avengelyne.”
Chris Farley was a legendary comedian on “Saturday Night Live” from 1990 to 1997. He played hilarious characters like an excited Bears fan, a clueless motivational speaker, an unprepared talk show host and most notably a Chippendales dancer with Patrick Swayze. Farley starred in comedies with David Spade, including “Tommy Boy” and “Black Sheep.” Other credits include 1994 “Airheads,” 1997’s “Beverly Hills Ninja” and posthumously in 1998’s “Almost Heroes.”
Hauser is represented by CAA, Artists First, The Lede Company, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP. Gad is represented by CAA, Sugar 23, ImPRint, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole LLP. Farley and Colby are represented by Verve. Broadway Video is represented by CAA. Neustadter & Weber are represented by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone, and Marks Law Group.