Chris Farley Biopic Package Heats Up Market With Paul Walter Hauser Playing Legendary Comic & Josh Gad Directing

Now here is a package coming together that is sure to set the town and market on fire. Deadline is hearing that a script based on The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts is being shopped with Paul Walter Hauser attached to play the iconic late comic and actor.

Josh Gad will direct with Lorne Michaels, who found and cast Farley in Saturday Night Live in the ’90s, producing through his Broadway Video. The package will be sold as a pitch based on the book with Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber penning the script.

More from Deadline

• Jennifer Garner & Paul Walter Hauser To Star In True-Crime Movie ‘Fruitcake’; Max Winkler Directing Black List Script

• Jennifer Garner & Paul Walter Hauser To Star In True-Crime Movie ‘Fruitcake’; Max Winkler Directing Black List Script

• Sydney Sweeney & Paul Walter Hauser Movie 'Americana' From SXSW 2023 Sells To Lionsgate

Based on the biography by Farley’s brother Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby — insiders say the family has given their blessing to the project — the film would tell the story of one of the great comic actors of his generation. Getting his start in the heyday of Saturday Night Live, where Farley would join an all-time ensemble of SNL greats including Adam Sandler, David Spade, Phil Hartman and Rob Schneider. From the start, Farley stood out with his great amazing physical comedy, delivering iconic sketches like his “Van Down by the River” performances as motivational speaker Matt Foley or trying out as a Chippendales dancer with Patrick Swayze that live in SNL lore.

His success on the show would translate over to the big screen, where Farley soon would join the A-list of ’90s comedians with such hit films as Tommy Boy, Black Sheep and Beverly Hills Ninja. After being sober for three years, he would relapse and fall back in to drugs and alcohol, dying from an overdose in 1997 at 33. His death shook not just the industry but all lovers of film and comedy and immediately drew comparisons to fellow SNL alum John Belushi, who also died way too young.

For Hauser, this is the type of role he has been driving toward as his career has risen rapidly following his scene-stealing role as Tonya Harding’s bodyguard in I, Tonya. He has followed that up with leading roles in Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell and most recently his star-making role in Black Bird, which earned him an Emmy.

As for Gad, this would mark a big step for him as the actor takes his first step in the directing realm, taking on the story of a person that surely inspired his own comedic aspirations over the years.

Neustadter and Weber long list of credits include The Disaster Artist, The Fault in Our Stars and (500) Days of Summer.

Hauser is repped by CAA, Artists First and Schreck Rose Dapello; Gad is represented by CAA, Sugar 23, ImPRint and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Farley and Colby are represented by Verve; Broadway Video is represented by CAA; and Neustadter and Weber are represented by UTA and Kaplan/Perrone.

Best of Deadline

• 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar - Dates For Writers Guild, Tonys & More

• 'Michael' Cast: Who's Who In The Michael Jackson Biopic

• Jonathan Majors' Film And TV Roles - Photo Gallery

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.