{"id":29923,"date":"2013-08-05T21:04:27","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T01:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=29923"},"modified":"2013-08-05T21:04:27","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T01:04:27","slug":"josh-gad-brother-sam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/05\/josh-gad-brother-sam\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Book Of Mormon”s Josh Gad To Play Sam Kinison In BROTHER SAM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Josh Gad has been set to play legendary comic Sam Kinison in the long in-development biopic Brother Sam<\/strong>, based on the book written by Kinison’s brother Bill Kinison. Borat<\/strong> director Larry Charles will be behind the cameras for the film working from a script by xXx<\/strong> scribe Rich Wilkes.<\/p>\n

The film will cover Kinison’s life as a stand-up comic, who traded in the vestments of his family’s Pentecostal preaching for the long coat he wore on stages across the country.<\/p>\n

Deadline<\/a> reports that producers are “in conversations with a number of stars and stand up comics to populate such roles as evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Oral Roberts, as well as comic peers like Richard Pryor.”<\/p>\n

Now ever since<\/a> I saw Gad in The Book Of Mormon<\/em> on Broadway, I’ve been a fan. But I think that he may just be all types of wrong for this role. Gad is at his best when he is playing innocent, if slightly-befuddled, types with genuinely good hearts. That’s how you could describe his Book Of Mormon character Elder Cunningham and his son of the president Skip Gilcrist on the short-lived NBC sitcom 1600 Penn<\/em>. That’s even a fair description of his on-screen persona during his handful of appearances as a correspondent on The Daily Show<\/em>. And while I am sure that the producers of Brother Sam<\/strong> are looking to show Kinison’s more vulnerable side that he kept hidden under his stage character I am forced to wonder if Gad can bring that kind of manic energy to the role. Hopefully, he was able to show the producers a side of his acting that he has really displayed in public yet and that he wasn’t just cast because he’s a heavy-set funny guy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a few years back, Dan Fogler tested for the role. In the leaked screen test below, Fogler doesn\u2019t attempt to mimic Kinison\u2019s distinct twang but instead goes for capturing Kinnison\u2019s on-stage energy, which he does remarkably well. Compare that to Kinison’s 1984 appearance on HBO’s Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special<\/em> which shot the then-struggling comic’s career into the stratosphere. (Both are NSFW, so use headphones if need be.)<\/p>\n