Brett Ratner to Direct Hefner Bio-Pic

Brett Ratner will direct a film based on the life of Hugh Hefner. Brian Grazer optioned the rights years back, and had Oliver Stone and Scott Silver take some stabs at the project. But Ratner brought his trademarked class and dignity that this project so richly deserves. He told Variety:

Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution. 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.

Ratner’s not exactly a cultural historian. Brown appeared on Playboy After Dark in 1969. No African-American performers on television then? Dianne Carroll had her own show in ’68.

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