I'm not particularly trying to be mean to Jonah Hill but as he is seemingly the Internet community's first choice to portray John Belushi in Todd Phillips' biopic of the tragic funnyman at Warner Bros - I have to say it - the movie might be the best thing that has ever happened to him. Look - Hill knows he is a big guy. It's not a shock to him - jokes about his weighty tonnage appear in almost every one of his films. He will wake up every morning and look at himself in the mirror and he'll know he's uncomfortably overweight and if he has visited his doctor in the past two years, they will have simply told him the same thing. He hit dangerous levels on Funny People, and he looked borderline obsese in Get Him To The Greek. Now yes, I know - Belushi life was cut short at 33 because of his drug vices and not because of his size (which was more Jack Black level 'chubby' than Hill's current look) but Belushi was a big guy and his untimely death will be an obvious parable to Hill, who has to know he is following in the footsteps of John Candy, Chris Penn and Chris Farley the way he is going. Again I'm not being mean, Hill will know this already. But at 26, he's still a young guy, and a couple of years of hard-work and he'll be as healthy as his friend Seth Rogen. He just needs the wake-up call of seeing the other side to put the wheels in motion. THR say Steve Conrad (Pursuit of Happyness, The Weather Man) is putting together a Belushi-biopic screenplay for Phillips at Warner Bros. and I couldn't think of a better duo working on this. Conrad will bring the heart and the darkness of Belushi, whilst Phillips (if he decides to direct) will bring the outrageous humour, which a Belushi biopic obviously needs to have. Though honestly, as Jack Black once said when he dismissed ever doing a John Belushi biopic;
"His life is not as funny as his work, and watching me do an imitation of him doing his 'Saturday Night Live' bits won't be as funny as watching him do his 'SNL' bits".
Or in other words... watching Animal House, The Blues Brothers or repeats of those Saturday Night Live sketches will trump watching anyone trying to imitate those classic performances. We are told the movie will have nothing to do with Wired, the late 80's film adaptation of Bob Woodwards 1985 biography, Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi" which was largely dismissed by the Belushi family. That movie starred Michael Chilkis in his film debut. Interestingly, Belushi's widow is executive producing. Inevitably, there's talk of Phillips' Hangover/Due Date star Zach Galifianakis starring but he's passed 40 now where Hill (26) is perfect age to do early 20's and 30's Belushi. Though, if you shave off Zach's beard - he's spitting image of Belushi.