Crowe To Play Hicks

That's right. Comedy hero Bill Hicks is getting the inevitable biopic treatment and Russell Crowe is set to play him after Nottingham, his Robin Hood project with Ridley Scott was pushed back thus clearing his slate.

In some ways this seems like perfect casting. Crowe is one of the only actors in Hollywood who is edgy enough to pull of Hicks's trademark acerbic vitriol and there's even a loose resemblance. Problem is Hicks died at age 32 and last time we checked Crowe was quite a bit older (we haven't checked in a while mind you but we're guessing he's even older now. Just an educated guess). If the biopic is traditional and shows his rising career and difficulty with alcoholism then presumable Crowe will have to play him even younger. Jesus, it's only as we write we realise the motherfucker was 32! Are we living in the middle ages? How is that possible. That's way too young to die. That's barely out of puberty. And Carrot Top is still telling jokes! Man the world sucks time.

This looks like it's a while away from happening as it's only at treatment stage but the thinking is that it would go ahead before Nottingham. It would be great to see a biopic of Bill Hicks from a serious director that doesn't give it the schmaltzy Hollywood treatment. Hicks himself would probably have preferred the I'm Not There treatment where everything is a bit trippy and against the grain. Problem is, the studio will probably miss the point completely and have cross-promotional tie-ins with McDonalds and weapons manufacturers. It's just hard to see this being true to Hicks's spirit and being in any way commercial. Hick's could be spinning in his grave before too long...In fact he's probably been doing it for years. You can't keep a good man down.