Entertainment

Emile Hirsch to play John Belushi in biopic

Taylor Bigler Entertainment Editor
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So, um, this is an interesting casting decision.

Emile Hirsch — the nerd who got to have sex with Elisha Cuthbert in “Girl Next Door” and the ill-prepared hiker Christopher McCandless who died in Alaska less than a mile from a river in “Into the Wild” — will play the beloved, cocaine-loving comedian John Belushi, The Wrap reports.

Belushi’s buddy and “Blues Brothers” co-star Dan Aykroyd is the executive producer of the yet-untitled film. The biopic has the full cooperation and support of the late “Saturday Night Live” and “Animal House” star’s family, unlike a 1989 version of his life starring Michael Chiklis.

Hirsch is famously petite at just 5’7″ while Belushi was famously rotund, so the miniature actor will have to gain plenty of weight to take on the meaty role.

Belushi died from a drug overdose at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles in 1982 at just 33 years old.

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Taylor Bigler