Chris Farley Film in the Works

A film to portray the life story of Chris Farley is being put together with Josh Gad as director and Paul Walter Hauser in the lead role. The family of the comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member, who died of a drug overdose in 1997 at age 33, is cooperating with the project, NBC News reports. "This is a glory story," Hauser wrote Friday on Instagram, per People, adding, "Ready to honor Christopher."

The film would be an adaptation of the best-selling The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts by Tom Farley Jr.—the comedian's brother—and Tanner Colby. SNL's Lorne Michaels would produce. Hauser, 37, who won an Emmy for the miniseries Black Bird, has appeared in films including Richard Jewell, Cruella, and I, Tonya. The Farley biopic would be the first directing job for Gad, who usually acts. (More Chris Farley stories.)