Now that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is filming, we're finally starting to get an idea of who surrounds Daniel Radcliffe's titular accordion player in the movie. As fun as that casting choice was, The Roku Channel gave us some more star power to revel in with the first look at Evan Rachel Wood in costume as superstar pop icon Madonna, along with the reveal of Julianne Nicholson, Rainn Wilson, and Toby Huss as members of the cast.
The image shows Wood as the Material Girl in an outfit reminiscent of the "Like a Virgin" stage of her career, complete with a fabulous black dress and gloves, plenty of gold jewelry, a skirt, and black cross earrings. In real life, one of Weird Al's biggest hits was his parody "Like a Surgeon," which Madonna was somewhat involved in the creation of. In this "tell-all" story of the fame and fortune of Yankovic and his "famously depraved" lifestyle, you can't do it without getting Madonna involved, and Wood pulls off the look from one of the pop star's biggest moments perfectly.
Regarding the other cast members, Nicholson was brought on to play Yankovic's mother Mary, Wilson will play comedic radio DJ Dr. Demento, the man responsible for bringing attention to Weird Al, and Huss will play Yankovic's father Nick. The film is a totally, not at all exaggerated look at the life of Yankovic from his early days as a child prodigy to his meteoric rise to pop culture icon thanks to his song parodies. The film pulls no punches, bringing every juicy detail of his "torrid celebrity love affairs" and his ascent to the status of "greatest musical legend of all time" to the forefront. Again, totally not hyperbole, but it's certain to please fans of the polka aficionado nonetheless.
Yankovic writes Weird with the help of Eric Appel, with Appel also taking the mantle of director and executive producer. The film is a joint production of Funny Or Die and Tango, with Yankovic producing alongside Mike Farah, Joe Farrell, and Whitney Hodack for Funny Or Die and Tim Headington, Lia Buman, and Max Silva for Tango. Funny Or Die's Henry Muñoz III and Tango's Neil Shah also executive produce.
Between Wood, Nicholson, Wilson, and Huss, Weird has added a ton of star power. Wood, of course, is famous for her part in Westworld, a role that saw her twice nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama at the Primetime Emmys. Nicholson picked up her own Emmy recently thanks to her performance in Mare of Easttown, though she's also set to appear in HBO's Lakers series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Wilson is best known for his turn as beloved goofball Dwight Schrute on The Office, making the role of Dr. Demento a perfect fit for him. Huss has had a number of prominent roles, from playing Hank Hill's cranky neighbor Kahn in King of the Hill to John Bosworth in Halt and Catch Fire.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is currently in production in Los Angeles, but there is no release date as of yet for the film.