Writer John McLaughlin has covered some pretty wild topics in his career, but now he's set to tackle a biopic of the King of Late Night television.
Deadline reports that McLaughlin, who wrote Black Swan, Hitchcock, and the upcoming Jason Statham action film, Parker, has been hired to write a biopic about the life of Johnny Carson based on the upcoming book called Carson The Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. The Carson estate is on board with the production, and Tom Thayer (who also produced Hitchcock) is producing.
Carson was an interesting guy on screen, but much of his personal life was kept secret. He was a part owner of Hollywood's Magic Castle (which is getting its own feature film), so perhaps we'll see his involvement with that in this film, along with exploring more of the talk show host's personal life. I don't envy the actors chosen to play Carson and sidekick Ed McMahon, because they were such iconic personalities. It's going to be tough to recapture that kind of sparkle. But Hollywood seems to love making movies about behind-the-scenes aspects of famous productions (My Week With Marilyn, Hitchcock, etc) right now, so this certainly fits with that trend.
No director is attached at the moment, but if McLaughlin's script is up to snuff, it could definitely attract big-name talents who idolized Carson growing up. We'll see who emerges in that crop of possible directors as the script gets closer to completion.