Green light for biopic

A film about the life of comedian Sam Kinison has been given the green light.

HBO Films is developing the biopic with Bruce Almighty and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective director Tom Shadyac.

The story will be based on the memoir Brother Sam: The Short, Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison, co-written by the comic’s brother Bill. Rich Wilkes, who wrote the Vin Diesel XXX action series, is adapting the book for the screen, according to Hollywood trade paper Variety.

Nobody has yet been cast as Kinison, a former evangelist who became famous for his intense, angry style of stand-up. He had a reputation for being a prodigious drug and alcohol user, and died in a traffic accident in 1992 at the age of 38.

Shadyac and executive producer David Permut have been attempting to get the Kinison project going for a decade.

Here is Kinison appearing on Saturday Live in the Eighties.

Published: 17 Nov 2010