Emile Hirsch is set to inhabit the skin of a comedy legend.
The “Into the Wild” star has been cast as late comedian John Belushi in a forthcoming biopic written and to be directed by Steve Conrad (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”). The film will chart the rise to fame of the “Blues Brothers” star, who got his big break as a key player on “Saturday Night Live” in the 1970s, before his untimely death at the age of 33.
Production on the film, which is being executive-produced by Belushi’s “SNL” co-star Dan Aykroyd, is set to begin next spring in New York.
Hirsch most recently starred in David Gordon Green’s “Prince Avalanche” opposite Paul Rudd. Coming up he’s got the History Channel/A&E/Lifetime miniseries “Bonnie and Clyde” and the big-screen war film “Lone Survivor” co-starring Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Eric Bana.
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