We told you yesterday about Brett Ratner and Brian Grazer's pact to give Hugh Hefner the biopic treatment, and now about 30 hours later, the blogosphere is just starting to consider what this turn of events might actually mean. First came the quips: Defamer posits that "Hollywood's most lovable fauxteur ... [will] make his long-promised Oscar film, finally leaving behind the genital-cleaving, broken-English-misunderstanding, buddy-comedy hackwork upon which he has wasted his considerable talents up to this career-validating moment." Best Week Ever also looks for the joke in the Rush Hour section of Ratner's filmography, but finds a better one in Ratner's mastery of pure, unadulterated, cigar-chomping Hollywood crass:
[W]hile the reality of Hugh Hefners life was pretty boob-heavy to begin with, the Ratner-ality promises that every frame of film telling this monumentual [sic] story of man-dom will be filled with with more juggs than a Girls Gone Wild movie marathon. Ratner himself once said it best, If theres one thing that puts asses in seats, its explosions. But if there are two things, theyre probably titties.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, Zoe Williams has a few questions regarding Ratner's stated intention to "show it all, from the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy" (and yes, we're assuming Brett got the order mixed up on that one). "Is that what counts for social activism, now?" Williams wonders at the Guardian's film blog. "Getting laid a lot, after your parents have explicitly told you not to?"
It wouldn't be tough to argue that Hefner's 40-something years spent determining the editorial direction of Playboy qualifies as social activism (he does occasionally write editorials in which he, like, advocates for, um, things), but that only really holds water as long as you're able to withhold gagging on that old chestnut about reading Playboy for the articles. Even then, wouldn't that just make Hefner something like Graydon Carter on Viagra?
Bottom line: they won't be able to pull off the "professional man-whore goes to bat for the First Amendment" biopic, because Milos Forman already made it. Hefner *has* been an extremely important figure in the realm of film preservation, but it's hard to imagine Ratner building a third act around an old man's fight to save a batch of Laurel and Hardy shorts. Ratner and Grazer are obviously shooting for gravitas, but they needn't bother--Ratner should be able to follow his own advice and get a few asses in seats.
Above: Hef in cinephile mode, telling the dreaded AFI about his favorite all-time film.
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