In news sure to infuriate our Film Editor, Josh Gad has closed a deal to portray the late film critic Roger Ebert in the biopic Russ & Roger Go Beyond. Will Ferrell had previously signed on to play legendary sexploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer in the film. The film is described as a “debaucherous comedy centering on two outsiders who defied the Hollywood establishment and made one of the first X-rated films ever released by a major movie studio, having the party of a lifetime in the process.”
Russ Meyer was the filmmaker responsible for such exploitation films as Wild Gals of the Naked West and Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill! He landed a deal at 20th Century Fox because they liked how he kept his budgets down. Roger Ebert was just starting out as a film critic when he wrote Meyer a letter of admiration. The two wrote the cult classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a film that at the time was highly controversial, stunning critics and moviegoers alike.
Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, Tristam Shandy, The Look of Love) is directing the feature from a script by Chris Cluess (Madman of the People, Night Court). Winterbottom is a director whose work I greatly admire, so I am in, despite the casting of Gad and Ferrell.
[Source – THR]