"The Speed Racer" actor Emile Hirsch gas been tapped to portray John Belushi in an upcoming biopic.
The 28-year-old actor will play the original 'Saturday Night Live' cast-member in a movie directed and scripted by Steve Conrad, reported Ace Showbiz.
Adam DeVine and Joaquin Phoenix were reportedly considered to take on the key role before Hirsch was signed.
The film, which is based on the book by Tanner Colby and Belushi's widow Judy Belushi Pisano, will chronicle Belushi's journey to stardom in 1970s through his shocking fatal drug overdose at the Chateau Marmont in 1982. He was just 33.
The late actor/comedian was best known as an original member of 'Saturday Night Live' and the star of movies like "The Blues Brothers" and "Animal House".
This will not be the first Belushi biopic. Michael Chiklis played the late funnyman in a 1989 film titled "Wired" directed by Larry Peerce based on the biography "Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi" by Bob Woodward.
Hirsch is no stranger to playing real-life characters in movies. He portrayed Z-Boys skateboarder Jay Adams in "Lords of Dogtown", starred as wilderness traveller Christopher McCandless in "Into the Wild", and played LGBT activist Cleve Jones in "Milk".
He will next be seen as real-life war hero, GM2 Danny Dietz, in "Lone Survivor".
