Apr 12, 2024

Chris Farley Biopic Package Heats Up Market With Paul Walter Hauser Playing Legendary Comic & Josh Gad Directing

Now here is a package coming together that is sure to set the town and market on fire. Deadline is hearing that a script based on The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts is being shopped with Paul Walter Hauser attached to play the iconic late comic and actor.

Josh Gad will direct with Lorne Michaels, who found and cast Farley in Saturday Night Live in the ’90s, producing through his Broadway Video. The package will be sold as a pitch based on the book with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber penning the script.

Based on the biography by Farley’s brother Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby — insiders say the family has given their blessing to the project — the film would tell the story of one of the great comic actors of his generation. Getting his start in the heyday of Saturday Night Live, where Farley would join an all-time ensemble of SNL greats including Adam Sandler, David Spade, Phil Hartman and Rob Schneider. From the start, Farley stood out with his great amazing physical comedy, delivering iconic sketches like his “Van Down by the River” performances as motivational speaker Matt Foley or trying out as a Chippendales dancer with Patrick Swayze that live in SNL lore.

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