Brett Ratner helming Playboy

A movie about the life of Playboy founder Hugh Heffner has long been in development. At one time Oliver Stone was working on a potential movie and strangely there was a time when 8 Mile producer Scott Silver was working on a musical biopic of the guy. Variety are reporting that X-Men 3 and upcoming Rush Hour 3 director Brett Ratner has been hired to direct a biopic of Heffner's life which has been approved by the 81 year old himself with talks recently taking place at his Playboy mansion. Ratner spoke to the trade...

"Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution," Ratner told Daily Variety. "He also used his magazine to advocate civil rights and free speech, and put James Brown on his show 'Playboy After Dark' when they didn't put black performers on national television. He broke all kinds of taboos, especially in sexuality. I want to show it all, from the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him."

Brizan Grazer is producing with John Hoffman writing the screenplay. At least by the sounds of Ratner's comments he wants to tell a more broader tale of Heffner's influence on the world and not just the sex and women. Still, a movie about Heffner... do we really need it? Not least, do we really need it from Ratner?