Brett Ratner’s dreams of reliving Hugh Hefner’s life in an artificial way will officially be limited to his own daily existence, as Deadline reports that the long-simmering Hefner biopic is moving forward without him. Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin is now attached to tell the story of another guy who likes weddings just for fun, taking over a project that’s seen more drafts than Hefner has seen twentysomething blondes have their innocence shattered.
These have included attempts by the likes of Oliver Stone and even a musical version from 8 Mile screenwriter Scott Silver—all of which failed to satisfy Hefner himself, who certainly wouldn’t want to attach himself to anything embarrassing that doesn’t also guarantee three girls will continue to pretend they find him sexually attractive. But with serious biopic guy Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) on board to write what promises to be the movie equivalent of reading Playboy for the articles, any such concerns seem to have been set aside.
There’s no word yet on who will play Hefner—though Dobkin’s upcoming, dramatic breakaway from dude-brah movies, The Judge, suggests he’ll have an in getting Robert Downey Jr. to fulfill the longstanding speculation that he could do it. Fortunately, there’s no way Dobkin’s other favorite movie star, Vince Vaughn, wouldn’t look weird in that robe.