Another Day, Another Biopic: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Will Play Johnny Carson in a Scripted Series
JGL will step into the iconic “Tonight Show” host’s shoes with a scripted series from “Deadwood” creator David Milch and “Austin Powers” director Jay Roach.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is trying his hand as a late-night host. No, the actor—who’s currently playing former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick on Showtime’s Super Pumped: The Battle of Uber—is not replacing Jimmy Fallon anytime soon, but he is stepping into the role of Tonight Show legend Johnny Carson for an upcoming biopic series.
From Deadwood creator David Milch, the series is titled King of Late Night and is set to be directed by Jay Roach, whose previous works include iconic early aughts comedies like Meet the Parents and the Austin Powers films.
Carson, who died in 2005, is best known for hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson from 1962 to 1992. During his impressive three-decade tenure, the comedian helped make the NBC series into a pop culture phenomenon that would go on to be hosted by Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, and Fallon.
As reported by Deadline, King of Late Night will trace Carson’s rise to stardom and the various stages of his career as he moved from New York to Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Thematically, it will explore “how Johnny’s diehard connection to his audience overlapped with his lifelong desire for a basic quality of life, and how his beloved on-screen persona came into conflict with the more colorful aspects of his personal life.”
A Johnny Carson biopic has been a long time in the making; this particular project has been in the works for about five years, after Milch was contacted by Anonymous Content to produce. It will be a collaboration with Wiip, the production company behind the hit HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown.
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We’re currently in the midst of a biopic boom that’s specifically focused on entertainers, such as last year’s Being the Ricardos about Lucille Ball and Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming film, Elvis. King of Late Night is the latest addition to this ever-growing list. Who will be next?
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