4 Oct – It seems that Hollywood is keen on immortalising the life of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Just one week after Hefner's death at the age of 91, a biopic is revealed to be in development and Jared Leto has been announced to be person who will soon don the iconic red silk pyjamas, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. "When he [Leto] heard I got the rights to Hef's story, he told me, 'I want to play him. I want to understand him.' And I really believe Jared can do it. He's one of the great actors of today," said director Brett Ratner who will helm the movie. Ratner originally pitched the project back in 2007 when it was set up at Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment. Robert Downey Jr. was also once attached to play as the Playboy mogul.
After a change of hand to Jerry Weintraub, Ratner managed to snap back the movie rights for his own company RatPac Entertainment in 2015. Hoping to introduce Leto to the man himself, Ratner revealed that he had invited the "Suicide Squad" star to the Playboy Mansion back in April for the premiere of Amazon's docuseries "American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story". However, the meeting never took place as Hefner was ill and not up for greeting guests that day. The executive producer of "The Revenant" also plans on rebooting "Playboy After Dark", the Hefner-hosted late 1960s talk show. Starring in the upcoming sci-fi sequel "Blade Runner 2049", fans will first see Leto as the blind replicant creator Niander Wallance when it opens this 5 October in Malaysia and Singapore, and 6 October in Cambodia, before he starts channelling his inner Playboy.