Adam Pally To Play SNL Legend
Actor Adam Pally is set to portray Animal House star John Belushi in a forthcoming biopic about the whirlwind life of the comedian.
Belushi was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live and went on to form a partnership with fellow comic Dan Aykroyd, starring in movies such as The Blues Brothers.
On 5 March 1982, Belushi was found dead by his personal trainer in a cottage at LA’s Chateau Marmont hotel. His friend Cathy Smith later admitted injecting the actor with a lethal speedball (a combination of heroin and cocaine) and served 15 months in prison for drug charges and involuntary manslaughter.
Collider reports that Pally, best known for the sitcom Happy Endings, is in talks to play the comic in the forthcoming film. Broadway star Alex Brightman had originally been cast as Belushi.
Along with Pally, the cast also has Ike Barinholtz as Dan Aykroyd, who co-created The Blues Brothers with Belushi. In addition, Aubrey Plaza is to play Belushi’s wife, Judith Belushi Pisano. However, it’s not clear if the real Aykroyd and Belushi Pisano are on board creatively, though the former was previously on board to executive produce when the project was developing back in 2013.
Belushi will be directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) and has a script written by Steve Conrad (The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty). But that script was written nearly a decade ago, so it might need to be tweaked.
