Metal mega-star and horror director Rob Zombie is reportedly turning his back on all things dark and scary (kind of) to helm a biopic concerning the final days of the legendary Groucho Marx.
The flick is based off Steve Stoliar’s memoir Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House, and will be adapted for the screen by Oren Moverman, who also scripted the recent Beach Boys biopic Love And Mercy.
Although Zombie’s own 31 (about a group of hostages fighting against evil clowns on one fateful Halloween night) is slated for release next year, Deadline reports he has acquired the rights to Stoliar’s book and is going full steam ahead on the adaptation.
Zombie is also producing the project, alongside Cold Iron Pictures whose own Miranda Bailey told Deadline that “Rob is the perfect visionary to direct Oren’s script to the screen”.
Although he may seem like a weird fit, particularly for those of us who know him best as a purveyor of trashy gore and a super-size Michael Myers, Zombie is said to be a life-long fan of Marx.
He described Stoliar’s book as “Groucho’s Sunset Boulevard” and stated emphatically that he knew, after reading it, he “had to bring it to the big screen”.
Raised Eyebrows details varyingly strange interactions with the legendary Marx over the final two years of his life, along with various run-ins with his brothers and celebrity friends, such as Mae West and Bob Hope.
Tellingly, on his Instagram, Zombie described it as “a very dark twisted tale”.
Source: Deadline
