He’s been Harry Potter, he’s appeared naked on stage and he’s starred as a dead body.
Now Daniel Radcliffe is taking on arguably the strangest role of his career: that of “Weird Al” Yankovic in the biopic of his life.
The film, which is being produced by Funny Or Die and Tango, dropped its first trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on Tuesday 3 May, and fan reactions are already mixed.
The final release date has also now been revealed, with the movie set for release via Roku Channel on November 4, 2022.
Aiming to tell the “untold true story” of Yankovic, it takes the form of a mockumentary and will be spoofing tropes from the biopic genre as it follows Weird Al’s rise to fame – including Al’s “torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle”.
Starting his career by performing parody songs on local radio, Yankovic went onto take his business of “comic music” global, releasing hit albums and appearing in concert and on TV. He is currently the best selling comedy recording artist of all time, and has won five Grammys for his work.
Some of his biggest hits include My Bologna (a parody of My Sharona) and Eat It (a parody of Michael Jackson’s Beat It), which won widespread popularity due to his shot-for-shot parody of Jackson’s music video.
The trailer itself opens to crowds of screaming fans, promising “the untold story” of Weird Al, before cutting to shots of Radcliffe as the titular character, on stage and filming several of his iconic online internet skits.
It was also shared on Twitter by Weird Al himself, with the comment: “Get psyched.”
However, despite this glowing endorsement, fans were left perplexed by Radcliffe’s portrayal of the internet star and singer.
“Weird Al is 6 feet tall. Does Daniel do the entire film standing on a box?” one commented, while another thought that the actor was too fit to play the title role.
“Al didn’t have pecs and abs like that back in the day that I remember,” they wrote.
Creative licence aside, the film looks to be star-studded, featuring Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson and Julianne Nicholson alongside Radcliffe.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is set for release via Roku Channel on November 4, 2022.
