Robert Downey Jr. Goes on a Playdate With Hef

Director Brett Ratner arranges for Tony Stark to meet Mr. Playboy himself, hoping to get the casting right for his biopic

By Jen Yamato May 12, 2010 6:35 PMTags
Robert Downey Jr., Hugh HefnerEvan Agostini/PictureGroup via AP Images; AP Photo/Bob Dear

Go on. We dare you to name a single A-list actor who'd make a better big-screen Hugh Hefner than Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr.

Director Brett Ratner thought so, too—so much so that he brought Downey to meet Hef in the flesh, to get everybody onboard for the planned biopic of the Playboy impresario's life.

Ratner told us how it all went down:

"I called Robert and we went to see him and sat down with him," Ratner told us while promoting his latest project, a "remix" of the upcoming Bollywood film Kites. "I think with the right script, Robert would do it. He would be great."

The meeting seemed to do the trick, because ever since then, Downey's been Hef's go-to star of choice. Hefner even reportedly told his would-be portrayer as much on the Iron Man 2 red carpet last month, where the two playboys crossed paths.

Ratner has been itching to get the Playboy movie to the big screen for years, dating back to the moment producer Brian Grazer nabbed the rights to Hef's story.

The problem is, with so much to distill into a single film, Ratner & Co. have had a helluva time locking down a script. Instead of covering all 84 years of Hef's life, the biopic will focus on Hefner's early bon vivant years, leading up to the impact his Playboy empire had on the burgeoning sexual revolution of the '70s.

"It's taken me three years just to get something that I think I can actually turn into a movie," said Ratner. "We're working on it. It's just so hard because Hugh Hefner's life—how do you put it into two hours?"

Hopefully the pic gets off the ground soon, because between Sherlock Holmes 2, The Avengers and Iron Man 3, everyone's favorite would-be Hef is going to have a schedule busier than the real Hef's dating calendar circa 1969.