News feed
Method actor Jared Leto is in talks to be slipping into some silk pyjamas and furry slippers to play Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in an upcoming biopic, says The Hollywood Reporter. The news comes just days after the 91-year-old magazine mogul passed away but the film’s director, Brett Ratner, claims the project has been in the works for some time. The director/producer has been at the helm of the project since 2007 but after the film’s rights expired, producer Jerry Weintraub (Ocean’s Eleven) picked them up. Then, after the latter died in 2015, Ratner bought the rights back and swiftly approached Leto.
“Jared is an old friend,” said Ratner, who directed Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand. “When he heard I got the rights to Hef’s story, he told me, ‘I want to play him. I want to understand him.’ And I really believe Jared can do it. He’s one of the great actors of today.”
Leto, who stars in the new Blade Runner 2049 (in Australian cinemas tomorrow) is known for becoming the characters he plays, only breaking after the film has wrapped. “The funny thing was, I didn’t really meet [Leto], I met his character,” explained his Blade Runner 2049 co-star Sylvia Hoeks when she spoke to GRAZIA. “Because he’s very method. So we met on set, and I introduced myself as Luv, and he introduced himself as Niander Wallace, and from that moment we worked together in our characters. And I finally got to meet him after our last scene together and we had a really nice time together. We talked, and we had fun, and we were joking around, and he was a really nice guy.” Will we see Leto with multiple blonde, busty wives IRL during filming? Watch this space.
