Daniel Radcliffe Lands Cheers and Nonstop Laughter for Manic Weird Al Biopic at Toronto Film Festival.
“The world belongs to the weird.” So says the tagline for “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” but the wee hours of Friday morning belonged to Daniel Radcliffe as the comedy made its world premiere as the clock struck midnight at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Radcliffe stars as the beloved parody musician in the upcoming Roku original film, which made its world premiere at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, kicking off TIFF’s Midnight Madness programming lineup.
It was a full house at the theatre and the crowd ate up every second of the parody biopic, cheering loudly for every surprise cameo (of which there were many) at the first “backstory” behind Yankovic’s biggest hits from “My Bologna” to “Eat It.” Some of the most raucous applause was saved for the Radcliffe-fronted rendition of “Amish Paradise.”
“Weird” is directed by Eric Appel, who co-wrote the film with Yankovic. Produced by Funny or Die and Tango, the project tells a mostly fictionalised version of how the parody artist rose to superstardom. It also marks Appel’s feature directorial debut, born from his 2010 viral video that depicted Yankovic’s life story as far more scandalous that it really was, skewering the stereotypes of typical biopics.
Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).