Paul Walter Hauser to star in Chris Farley biopic

Cairo: Zizi Abdel Ghaffar

(Left) Paul Walter Hauser in the fifth season of Netflix’s ‘Coba Kai’. (Right) Chris Farley in ‘Tommy Boy’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Advance:

Paul Walter Hauser will play Chris Farley in a new biopic.
Josh Gad is directing a film based on a biography co-written by Farley’s brother.
Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels will produce the film.

While many comedians and film actors have been given the biopic treatment (although the current trend has been for musicians), it’s finally time for Saturday Night Live veteran Chris Farley to get his due .

And a package is in the works that includes an adaptation of a biography co-written by his brother (with the family giving their blessing for the project), actor Josh Gad directing the film and Paul Walter Hauser playing Farley.

What was the story of Chris Farley?

(From left to right) Chris Farley and David Spade in ‘Tommy Boy’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Hailed as one of the best comic actors of his generation and has a tragic story that seems ideal for a biographical treatment.

Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1964, he graduated from Marquette University in 1986, double majoring in communications and theater. At Marquette, he played rugby and discovered a love of comedy. Although he later worked at the same oil company as his father, his love for acting never left him and he began studying improvisational comedy.

That, in turn, led him to the legendary Chicago improv group Second City, where he started the same day as Stephen Colbert. From there, Lorne Michaels recruited him for ‘Saturday Night Live’.

He joined a host of all-time ‘SNL’ greats, including Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and Norm Macdonald. From the beginning, Farley stood out for his incredible physical comedy, delivering iconic sketches such as his performances in ‘Van Down by the River’ as motivational speaker Matt Foley or trying out as a Chippendales dancer with Patrick Swayze, living in SNL tradition. .

His success on the show would translate to the big screen, where Farley would soon join the A-list of ’90s comedians with such hit films as ‘Tommy Boy,’ ‘Black Sheep,’ and ‘Beverly Hills Ninja.’

But he also struggled with the addiction problems common to great comedians: after being sober for three years, he would relapse and fall back into drugs and alcohol, dying of an overdose in 1997 at age 33. His death shocked the industry and his peers.

What will the biopic be inspired by?

(From left to right) Kaley Cuoco, Kevin Hart and Josh Gad in ‘The Wedding Ringer’. Photo: Sony Pictures release.

The new film will have a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber of ‘500 Days of Summer’, who will work from the biography ‘The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts’, written by Farley’s brother, Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby. .

Josh Gad, best known for playing Olaf in Disney’s ‘Frozen’ franchise and appearing in the live-action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ film as LeFou. He has produced several films, but this would be his directorial debut.

Who is Paul Walter Hauser?

“Paul Walter Hauser stars in ‘Black Bird,’ now streaming on Apple TV+”.

Hauser is probably best known for films like ‘I, Tonya’ and ‘Richard Jewell,’ and for television series like ‘Cobra Kai’ and the Apple TV+ miniseries ‘Black Bird,’ which earned him an Emmy and a Golden Globe. .

He will next be heard as one of the new voices in ‘Inside Out 2’, playing the emotional character Embarrassing.