Preview “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” Starring Daniel Radcliffe and Debuting on Roku This Fall

Word broke in January that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, an official biopic of the parody music/pop culture legend starring Harry Potter‘s Daniel Radcliffe, was in the works. It was met with excitement among Yankovic fans and eyebrows raised among those surprised in Radcliffe’s casting.

Could he properly handle the quirkiness of Yankovic, and/or the unmatched sense of style, fashion and humor that has made Al such an icon over the years?

Get psyched. pic.twitter.com/w7oTGVwjFe

— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) May 3, 2022

We’ll have to wait until the fall for the film’s debut on the Roku Channel to know for sure, but on Tuesday a minute-long teaser trailer was debuted that shines a bit of light on the madness to come:

As production went on in recent weeks, Yankovic shared some silly photos from the set on social media. Some was nonsense, but as the posts went on, though, Al started revealing more substantial information about the movie — including some of his co-stars, an array of talent that includes Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from The Office), Toby Huss, Julianne Nicholson and Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna:

It’s SHOOT DAY #14, my friends, and NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Daniel Radcliffe’s co-stars in #WEIRDTheAlYankovicStory will be Evan Rachel Wood, @rainnwilson, @tobyhuss, and Julianne Nicholson! @TheRokuChannel pic.twitter.com/rwh1OEIMuD

— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) March 2, 2022

Eagle-eyed Al aficionados noted that the title for this new film is the same as the fake movie previewed in a 2010 trailer, a production from Funny or Die, Eric Appel and Yankovic starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) as Yankovic in a gritty and amusingly dramatic sendup of a totally serious “Weird Al” movie.

Note the depiction of Madonna in this trailer, portrayed here by Olivia Wilde:

Production began ahead of Yankovic’s massive The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, which launched recently. The new Weird: The Al Yankovic Story film will stream exclusively on the Roku Channel.

Said Yankovic in a statement about this new film: “When my last movie UHF came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I’m very happy to say we’re on schedule. And I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for.”

And Appel: “When Weird Al first sat me down against my will and told me his life story, I didn’t believe any of it, but I knew that we had to make a movie about it.”

“There clearly aren’t enough biopic movies about famous musicians and we were excited to shine a light on the incredibly true, unexaggerated story of Weird Al,” said Colin Davis, Roku’s head of original scripted programming. “This is sincerely the ultimate combination of talent, creativity, and friends, coming together to make something genuinely funny and we could not be prouder to call this film a Roku Original.”