Brett Ratner Producing The Hugh Hefner Biopic

Brett Ratner Producing The Hugh Hefner Biopic

By Jack Giroux/April 7, 2017 3:30 pm EST

Below, learn more about the potential, long-gestating Hugh Hefner movie.

According to Deadline, RatPat Entertainment has secured the life rights to Hefner’s story. The film, which doesn’t have a writer or director attached, is a co-production between RatPac and Playboy/Alta Loma Entertainment. Hefner is executive producing.

When the project was at Warner Bros., director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers), screenwriter Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon), and the late, great Jerry Weintraub (Ocean’s 11) were behind it. Hefner believes the perfect creative partners are now working on his life story:

Ratner spent the last several months making this deal happen. He discussed the project’s ups and downs in his statement, including when Universal wasn’t interested in screenwriter Diablo Cody’s (Young Adult) take:

In recent years there has been plenty of interest and much conversation about doing a feature film based on my life. I have always believed that when the timing was truly right, the perfect creative partners would come together for this project. I believe we’ve found those partners in Brett Ratner and RatPac Entertainment. I’m very much looking forward to this collaboration."

I thought it was such a brilliant idea [when Grazer first got the rights] that I sent Brian a Playboy pinball machine from that 70s. Scott Silver wrote a script but they could never crack it and then I told Brian there was nobody better for this than me. And then I spent years unable to crack it, as a straight drama, or as a musical. Finally, Diablo Cody pitched a take that seemed promising, but Universal let it go and Jerry Weintraub and Warner Bros grabbed it. And they couldn’t crack it either. In the meantime, I went from a seller to a buyer and I’m relieved to have it back so that we can develop it without the impatience from studios.

Now the question is: Who could play the Playboy founder? I personally don’t mind imagining Sam Rockwell or Joaquin Phoenix in the role.