Russell Crowe to play Bill Hicks?

Two edged sword-- bringing thousands of new fans to the good Bill?

Or whitewashing him and making him a palatable consumer item?

I think Crowe will fuckin murder all of Bill Hicks material. He was one of a kind, don't imitate, you'll fail

I'm open-minded. A Hicks biopic sounds like a reasonable idea, if done right. Russel Crowe is a decent actor, so he isn't the worst possible choice, but maybe they should explore other options.

But asherp's hit the nail on the head as far as the primary concern.

I'd never thought of the resemblance, but I think Crowe could be made to look a dead ringer for Hicks: it's something in the cheeks. Whether he could master the southern drawl is another matter. Also I doubt any actor could portray just how cynical Hicks was.

Great, a film that would bastardize a great comedian. A man who preached free thought.
Part of me is amazed hollywood would have the balls, but then again they'll sanitize everything from goat-boy to getting pulled over by the cops high on acid.
However, thinking about if they had an amazing director, with complete freedom (ok, I'm asking a lot now), a good writer, maybe knew him personally (maybe, at least have read the biographies and stand-up material). But let's face the first thing I'd do is tell Crowe to kiss Goat-boys big shiny ass and f**k off!!!

Hey now, hey now...

Bill's bestest of buddies (Kevin something? You know they guy Bill Filmed the ninja movies with) over at Sacred Cow Productions is still alive and kickin' and he might have a part in it.

Oh come on! There is plenty of great material out there to show audiences two and a half hours (...or more, if you consider the possiblity of a "special features/deleted scenes" section on DVD) of the real deal, rather than subjecting them to some watered down film that is "inspired by true events."

With all due respect to Mr. Crowe, but keep 'yer stinkin mitts of The Goat Boy!!

Russell Crowe as bills hicks on first hearing i was not happy not one bit as i don't russell is right person to play such a major icon and crowe just isnt funny

I can see why they cast him, but a little voice inside of me is doing Cartman impressions:

"Its wrowng... WROOWNG!... Its *wroooowng*."

They should just have Dennis Leary play Bill Hicks since he already stole all of Hicks' material to begin with.

"Why isn't Bill Hicks famous? Because there's no cure for cancer."

Whoever chose the clip of Bill Hicks on show here has a wonderful sense of irony themselves... Hollywood marketing, perfect!

A rubber mask of Russell Crowe could be put on a chimp and it would look like Russel Crowe. The genius of Bill Hicks is his mind, not his looks.

My choice would be Doug Stanhope to play Bill Hicks.

Here's an idea, why not just make a movie of BILL HICKS playing Bill Hicks.

Not EVERYTHING needs to be made into a movie just to say it's been done: some things are just good without an egotistical Hollywood actor trying to recreate them.

John Nash to Bill Hicks, well he can cover so many emotions that are hard to replicate, I think he's the man for it. I'm not sure if John Cusack could do it but I do hope somebody does. Bill Hicks is a legend and a man definitely worth remembering. His jokes delivered so many different perspectives and he was just a great guy. He still lives in my headphones and internet clips. Hicks was something else...