Peter Morgan, the screenwriter behind The Queen and Frost/Nixon, is in talks with Warner Bros to develop a film about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's life.
The Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind successful films The Queen and Frost/Nixon met with the 85-year-old Playboy founder earlier this week.
Hefner later tweeted: "I had a good meeting today with screenwriter Peter Morgan discussing a film about my life.”
No cast or director has been announced for the project, though it is understood that Hollywood veteran Jerry Weintraub – who produced and appeared in Ocean's Eleven and its two follow-up films – will produce the biopic. Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman or Robert Downey Jr have been mentioned as possible contenders for the role of Hefner.
Chicago-born Hefner founded Playboy magazine in 1953, after previously working as a copywriter for Esquire. He became notorious for a wild personal life, which included lavish parties at his 'Playboy Mansion' residence near Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, where he also housed an ever-changing number of female companions.
Hefner and his girlfriends's lifestyle was explored in a reality show called The Girls Next Door, which ran for 91 episodes from 2005 to 2010. Currently, Hefner still serves as the Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises
Morgan, 49, began his entertainment career writing television scripts in the Nineties. In 2003, he wrote The Deal, a television drama about a supposed power-sharing deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and in 2006 he won a Golden Globe for his feature film follow-up, The Queen.
Morgan's forthcoming projects include writing Ron Howard's Formula One racing film Rush, and a proposed biopic of Freddie Mercury starring Sacha Baron Cohen.
Source: telegraph
