Weird: The Al Yankovic Story premieres at TIFF!
Daniel Radcliffe, Al Yankovic ( @alyankovic), Evan Rachel Wood, and Eric Appel ( @erockappel) at the World Premiere of WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY.
📸: Getty/Araya Doheny pic.twitter.com/o6cUaYhTfn
- TIFF Press & Industry (@TIFF_Industry) September 9, 2022
Weird Al's take on the music biopic (a parody, of course) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival! Starring Daniel Radcliffe as Weird Al Yankovic, Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Rainn Wilson plays radio broadcaster Dr. Demento, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Toby Huss and Julianne Nicholson as Al's parents, it was a hit with the audience. The premiere even included a flash mob in front of the Royal Alexandra Theatre!
Last night was the World Premiere of #WEIRDTheAlYankovicStory at @TIFF_NET, and... well, needless to say, things got a little weird. pic.twitter.com/OKSqWNHiI7
- Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) September 9, 2022
“Weird Al’s biopic could never have been anything else but this - a parody of the idea of musical biopics.”
Daniel Radcliffe explains why he took on the role of @alyankovic at the World Premiere of WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY. #TIFF22 pic.twitter.com/X3lunhFTlp
- TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 9, 2022
Just watched the #WeirdAl movie here at #TIFF22 - it is completely bonkers and absolutely hilarious. Daniel Radcliffe is awesome, and there are SO MANY cameos. The Midnight crowd LOVED this one. I had a blast. Big recommend pic.twitter.com/BfGpXiSwMR
- Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) September 9, 2022
The crowd cheered loudly the entire movie, especially at the surprise cameos; some of the most raucous applause was saved for Radcliffe's performance of "Amish Paradise."
Some more tidbits from the Variety article below:
“Weird” is directed by Eric Appel, who co-wrote the film with Yankovic. Produced by Funny or Die and Tango, the project tells a mostly fictionalized version of how the parody artist rose to superstardom. It also marks Appel’s feature directorial debut, born from his 2010 viral video that depicted Yankovic’s life story as far more scandalous that it really was, skewering the stereotypes of typical biopics."
-DanRad also took accordion lessons with a teacher and with Al himself. the first scene DanRad had to perform in front of Al was his famous first parody of My Sharona, My Bologna.
-of learning the accordion, he says: “And, you know, I did what I could. It’s a very hard instrument. He makes it look very easy… it was fun to try it.”
“And I got to be in the trailer next to his while he practiced,” Wood joked.
“It was probably roughly about a month between me learning the verse of ‘My Bologna’ and the chorus, so my girlfriend was living in a perpetual hellscape,” Radcliffe continued.
WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY kicks off #TIFF22's Midnight Madness programme with a theatre-full of laughter, cheers, and glee. https://t.co/lRliEDNwTv
- TIFF Press & Industry (@TIFF_Industry) September 9, 2022
source 1, source 2, source 3, source 4, source 5