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Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks

Martin Anderson


Russell Crowe to portray anarchic funnyman Hicks in forthcoming biopic. Not the obvious choice, but perhaps the lesser of two weevils...

Published on Aug 18, 2008

Bill Hicks, the anarchic comedian who shocked enough people in the late 80s and early 90s to be dubbed 'Goat-boy', is to be played by Russell Crowe in a new biopic. His tale has enough laughs, drink, drugs and general chaos to be bog-standard comedian biopic material, and the film is likely to raise more laughs than similar material such as the very intense 1975 Lenny Bruce biopic Lenny. I guess we'll find out if Mr. Hicks was quite as sex-starved as he was always complaining of...

Russell Crowe's comic timing is the x-factor here (the 'lesser of two weevils' gag in Master & Commander aside), but the strength of Hicks' material will carry the day. The emotional impact of the piece sits with the death of anti-establishment icon Hicks from cancer in 1994 at the age of 32.

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Users Comments

Re: Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks
Posted By Matt 1 August 19, 2008 10:45:26 AM

Hmmm. Okay. I really hope this works. Involving Russell Crowe at least shows they're not going to try to make it fluff-y. If this had been an article about shouty Adam Sandler to play shouty dead comedian in shouty biopic, then I would be unhappy. Even if the film turns out to be terrible, it would be worth it further expose Hicks' excellent work.

Re: Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks
Posted By twosheds 1 August 19, 2008 11:19:42 AM

Absolutely. Anything to get Hicks out there to a generation less aware of him.

Re: Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks
Posted By twosheds 1 August 19, 2008 11:24:50 AM

PS Only hope Crowe doesn't try and play him in his teenage Texas days. Hopefully the script covers 1988-1994, which Crowe could just about fudge in terms of age.

Re: Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks
Posted By RonHogan 1 August 19, 2008 01:30:22 PM

I look forward to Russell Crowe's awful accent.
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