Jun 11 2008, 09:25 PM, updated 18y ago
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Hugh Hefner Hopes Robert Downey Jr. Will Don His Pajamas
If Robert Downey Jr. was perfect playing a wealthy playboy superhero in Iron Man, the hero of generations of men who appreciate the female form thinks he'd be the ideal choice to play the ultimate swinger. Playboy Magazine founder and publisher Hugh Hefer told ComingSoon.net he and director Brett Ratner are avidly pursuing Downey as the lead for a planned big screen biopic on Hef's legendary life at the center of his centerfold empire.
"I guess the next big thing we're looking forward to is the movie and we're hoping that Robert Downey Jr. will be portraying me," Hef revealed. "Brian Grazer is producing. Brett Ratner is directing. We're finishing up the screenplay and hope to have to be in production by the end of the year."
Hef thinks Downey – who's expressed serious interest in the project – would be perfect to play him "because he's a very good actor. It has nothing to do with 'Iron Man.' Our conversations with Robert were in the months immediately before 'Iron Man.' He called immediately after 'Iron Man' and asked 'When we were going to do the movie?''"
Ratner was also completely sold on the idea of Downey as the pajama-clad publisher. "He's a great actor and he embodies the characters," Ratner told ComingSoon.net. Just look at him as Charlie Chaplin [in 1992's 'Chaplin']. You really believe it. I think if he spends time with Hef, he'll not just mimic him but he'll take on his nuances and his personality and the essence of Hefner.
The film is expected to cover the prime years in which Hefner built his Bunny-based empire. "Originally, in the first draft it was covering everything, which proved impossible," Hefner explained. "It would make a good mini-series. It's going to cover the launch of the magazine which is about 1952-1953 to the middle of the 1970s."
"It's not just about his life it's about the creation of the magazine," said Ratner. "I think the movie is more than just a film, it's about the Sexual Revolution and how much he brought to it. The change in America and the influence that Playboy had on the world. He had this idea and it was lighting in a bottle to create a magazine to change the world on how they viewed sexuality."
Also sold on Downey's casting: Hefner's number one "Girl Next Door" girlfriend Holly Madison. "I think he'd be a good choice," Madison said. "I think he's hot and I really liked him in 'Iron Man.' He played a Playboy-type character in that, too.
Meanwhile, Hefner and his triumverate of "Girls"--Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson--will appear on the big screen as themselves in the upcoming comedy The House Bunny, in which Anna Faris plays a centerfold who gets tossed out of the Playboy Mansion and ends up as the house mother to seven sorority girls. "Hef's always charming-I mean, ALWAYS," said Faris, who shot at the Mansion "He's incredibly hospitable."
Faris also teased ComingSoon that she just might be appearing in a saucy spread in the pages of the magazine to promote the film. "I was thinking about it, just sort of like, 'Oh, my God, my parents.' But they're so supportive and they love it and it's all sort of…well, you'll just have to see!"
Hef also updated ComingSoon.net on all of his upcoming projects, as well as how, at age 82, he stays so young at heart (Hint: surrounding yourself with sexy ladies who aren't so hung up on clothing helps).
If Robert Downey Jr. was perfect playing a wealthy playboy superhero in Iron Man, the hero of generations of men who appreciate the female form thinks he'd be the ideal choice to play the ultimate swinger. Playboy Magazine founder and publisher Hugh Hefer told ComingSoon.net he and director Brett Ratner are avidly pursuing Downey as the lead for a planned big screen biopic on Hef's legendary life at the center of his centerfold empire.
"I guess the next big thing we're looking forward to is the movie and we're hoping that Robert Downey Jr. will be portraying me," Hef revealed. "Brian Grazer is producing. Brett Ratner is directing. We're finishing up the screenplay and hope to have to be in production by the end of the year."
Hef thinks Downey – who's expressed serious interest in the project – would be perfect to play him "because he's a very good actor. It has nothing to do with 'Iron Man.' Our conversations with Robert were in the months immediately before 'Iron Man.' He called immediately after 'Iron Man' and asked 'When we were going to do the movie?''"
Ratner was also completely sold on the idea of Downey as the pajama-clad publisher. "He's a great actor and he embodies the characters," Ratner told ComingSoon.net. Just look at him as Charlie Chaplin [in 1992's 'Chaplin']. You really believe it. I think if he spends time with Hef, he'll not just mimic him but he'll take on his nuances and his personality and the essence of Hefner.
The film is expected to cover the prime years in which Hefner built his Bunny-based empire. "Originally, in the first draft it was covering everything, which proved impossible," Hefner explained. "It would make a good mini-series. It's going to cover the launch of the magazine which is about 1952-1953 to the middle of the 1970s."
"It's not just about his life it's about the creation of the magazine," said Ratner. "I think the movie is more than just a film, it's about the Sexual Revolution and how much he brought to it. The change in America and the influence that Playboy had on the world. He had this idea and it was lighting in a bottle to create a magazine to change the world on how they viewed sexuality."
Also sold on Downey's casting: Hefner's number one "Girl Next Door" girlfriend Holly Madison. "I think he'd be a good choice," Madison said. "I think he's hot and I really liked him in 'Iron Man.' He played a Playboy-type character in that, too.
Meanwhile, Hefner and his triumverate of "Girls"--Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson--will appear on the big screen as themselves in the upcoming comedy The House Bunny, in which Anna Faris plays a centerfold who gets tossed out of the Playboy Mansion and ends up as the house mother to seven sorority girls. "Hef's always charming-I mean, ALWAYS," said Faris, who shot at the Mansion "He's incredibly hospitable."
Faris also teased ComingSoon that she just might be appearing in a saucy spread in the pages of the magazine to promote the film. "I was thinking about it, just sort of like, 'Oh, my God, my parents.' But they're so supportive and they love it and it's all sort of…well, you'll just have to see!"
Hef also updated ComingSoon.net on all of his upcoming projects, as well as how, at age 82, he stays so young at heart (Hint: surrounding yourself with sexy ladies who aren't so hung up on clothing helps).
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