Ratner Punches In for Playboy Duty

Wed., Jun. 27, 2007 3:06 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Brett Ratner is known for being a bit of a playboy—just check out his self-deprecating cameo in HBO's Entourage this season.

Now, in a perfect bit of Hollywood convergence, the Rush Hour director has been tapped to helm Playboy, a biopic on the world's most famous bachelor, Hugh Hefner.

According to Variety, Ratner will team up with producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter John Hoffman on a story that will chronicle Hef's days from upstart publisher of Playboy to international icon (not to mention the scourge of feminists everywhere). The film will be overseen by Grazer's Imagine Entertainment in conjunction with Universal Pictures.

"Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution," Ratner told Variety. "He also used his magazine to advocate civil rights and free speech, and put James Brown on his show Playboy After Dark when they didn't put black performers on national television.

"He broke all kinds of taboos, especially in sexuality. I want to show it all, from the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him."

The project has the blessing of the 81-year-old Hefner, who approved the pitch after meeting with the principals last week at the Playboy Mansion.

Ratner, who recently wrapped shooting on Rush Hour 3, came aboard Playboy after Oliver Stone dropped out. Stone had been developing the biopic for years, having written several drafts of a script after 8 Mile writer Scott Silver initially hatched the project as a musical.

Stone exited the project to work on Jawbreaker, a war movie about America's post 9-11 invasion of Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Ratner signaled his interest in the film by reportedly sending Grazer (who purchased the rights to Hefner's life story years ago) a Playboy pinball machine.

While Hoffman gets cracking on a new draft, Ratner is prepping what will likely precede Playboy on his to-do list.

He's collaborating with Grazer on an untitled all-star crime caper said to be in the vein of Ocean's Eleven about a group of crooks who rob the fabulously wealthy residents of Manhattan's Trump Tower.

The Russell Gewirtz-penned flick reportedly has been given the thumbs-up from Donald Trump, who may cameo. Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock are attached, with Ratner trying to recruit Denzel Washington, Sydney Poitier, Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker and Dave Chappelle to round out the mostly African-American cast.

Rush Hour 3, meanwhile, is set to drive into theaters Aug. 10.