Richard Linklater is developing a film about the late comedian Bill Hicks that he will write and direct for Focus Features. Linklater will also produce the project along with Femke Wolfing and Tommy Pallotta.
A stand-up comedian, social satirist and musician who developed a cult following, Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. He got his start doing comedy in Texas, where he became associated with the Texas Outlaw Comics group at the Comedy Workshop in Houston in the 1980s. Linklater, a Texas native, grew up loving his work.
Linklater’s next film, Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, based on the novel of the same name by Maria Semple and starring Cate Blanchett and Kristin Wiig, is set to be released March 22 by Annapurna.
Linklater is repped by CAA and Cinetic.
The news was first reported by Collider.
