Roku announced today a new original comedy about Grammy-winning musician Weird Al Yankovic. Production of WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story starts next month and the film will be available exclusively on The Roku Channel when it premieres.
The Roku Original will star Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al, with the film following Yankovic’s life, showing how he became a pop culture icon and taking a look at the man behind hits like “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon.”
“When my last movie UHF came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I’m very happy to say we’re on schedule,” said Yankovic. “And I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for.”
The film was written by Al Yankovic and Eric Appel and will be produced by Funny or Die and Tango.
“There clearly aren’t enough biopic movies about famous musicians and we were excited to shine a light on the incredibly true, unexaggerated story of Weird Al,” said Colin Davis, Roku’s Head of Original Scripted Programming. “This is sincerely the ultimate combination of talent, creativity, and friends, coming together to make something genuinely funny and we could not be prouder to call this film a Roku Original.”