

Paul Giamatti is set to star in a biopic about a radio host with a penchant for the paranormal, MovieWeb reports. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who also helmed Ready or Not and Abigail, and written by Sam Chalsen, who wrote the TV show Sleepy Hollow, and Nelson Greaves, who wrote the screenlife horror film Unfriended, the currently untitled film will portray radio DJ Art Bell as he went from playing rock music to talking about politics to becoming well known for discussing more “taboo” subjects such as conspiracy theories, Bigfoot, UFOs, and ghosts.
Per Deadline, the project is being pitched around Hollywood, with the synopsis of following Bell “who would broadcast his radio show from his home studio 65 miles west of Las Vegas, fielding unscreened telephone calls in a five-hour show on KNYE-FM called Coast to Coast”. Studios such as Warner Bros. and Amazon are currently bidding for its distribution.
The casting of Giamatti as Bell could be considered a particularly apt case of life imitating art as the actor himself is the co-host of a podcast, Chinwag, with author and philosopher Stephen Asma that covers many of the supernatural and spiritual topics that Bell himself did.
The Art Bell biopic will be produced by Sophie Cassidy, the head of 2.0 Entertainment, and Jeff Katz, a former radio host.