Smothers Brothers Biopic In Development

Sony Pictures and Smokehouse partners George Clooney and Grant Heslov will turn the story of 1960s television comedians Tom and Dick Smothers into a feature film. They’ve optioned the David Bianculli book Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story Of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, with hot scribes Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman set to co-author the script. It is still too early to determine whether or not Clooney will star or direct. The ground-breaking comedy variety series ran for only two seasons on CBS (1967-1969), but became a magnet for the counterculture of the period, introducing cutting-edge rock acts like The Who, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, and testing censorship limits with liberal political humor that criticized then-President Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. In fact, this stance earned them a spot on Nixon’s enemies list, with the White House putting pressure on the television network, which unceremoniously fired the comedy duo in 1969. Clooney and Heslov are known for their interest in unconventional political stories, which include this year’s IDES OF MARCH and previous films like GOOD MORNING AND GOOD NIGHT, which looked at the effect of McCarthyism on television of the 1950s.

FFT Webmaster

The FFT Webmaster use displays whenever an article has multiple authors. It also pops up on articles from old versions of Film Festival Today. The original author byline might be missing! In that case, if you are the author of such an article and see this bio instead of your own, please send us an email. Some of our contributors that might be missing bylines are: Brad Balfour, Laura Blum, and Sandy Mandelberger, among others.