Entertainment

Believe It or Not, Emile Will be Belushi

Though I stand by my statement that Joaquin Phoenix would have been a brilliant choice for this movie, I have to concede: Emile Hirsch is a talented guy, and he's going to rock this. According to Variety, Emile Hirsch will portray John Belushi in an upcoming biopic, which is untitled as of now and set to be directed by The Secret Life of Walter Mitty writer Steve Conrad.

Shitty upcoming Bonnie & Clyde telepic aside (we're just going to ignore that one), Emile Hirsch has proven his stellar acting chops in more than one project — Into the Wild, anyone? — so this has the potential to be great. While he's not exactly seen as a funnyman, Belushi's life had a lot of darkness in it, and it'll be interesting to see him play the role of a troubled, yet beloved star.

In addition to directing, Conrad also wrote the script based off of Belushi Pisano and Tanner Colby's book, Belushi, which is great news as well — judging by his work on The Pursuit of Happyness and The Weather Man, Conrad's a great talent.

The film will reportedly focus on "the heights of Belushi’s fame in “The Blues Brothers” and “Animal House” and as a key player on the first four seasons of “Saturday Night Live” to his death at age 33 from an overdose of a mixture of cocaine and heroin at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles." No word on who will portray Belushi's BFF Dan Aykroyd, but he's gotta be in there — Aykroyd was a huge part of Belushi's life and career, and he's executive producing the project.

Filming is set to start in NYC this spring.