Todd Phillips To Develop Film on John Belushi’s Life Story

John Belushi

Todd Phillips, director of last year’s hit The Hangover, is currently hard at work putting together a new biopic on John Belushi. Written by Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness), it’s not known at this time whether Phillips will direct, but he will definitely be producing, says THR.

For years, many have tried to give Belushi the Ray treatment. Wired, starring a young Michael Chiklis, was released in 1989 to both critical and commercial indifference. The biggest problem is, who do you get to play a personality that every knows? At this point, who hasn’t watched Animal House or seen Belushi’s classic skits on  Saturday Night Live a thousand times? Also, age IS a factor. Belushi died at 33 from a drug overdose. Do you go young (Jonah Hill/Seth Rogen) and just ugly them up for the end of the movie (the Monster effect), or do you go for the name on the poster (Jack Black), who can probably do a hell of an impersonation but is already 41, and the cameras haven’t started rolling yet.