According to Collider, Richard Linklater is planning to translate his lifelong Bill Hicks fandom into a film about the life and death of the influential comedian, with Linklater saying he has regretted the fact that he and Hicks never got to work together since their “creative sensibilities” would’ve been a “natural fit.” Linklater and Hicks both grow up in Houston, Linklater’s older brother went to the same school as Hicks and knew some of his friends, and Hicks was even reportedly a “big fan” of Linklater’s Dazed And Confused—which was released just a few months before Hicks died from cancer in 1994.
Hicks was one of the first people to bring “alternative comedy” to the mainstream, making him one of those guys who “tell it like it is” before that was something that everybody did. His ability to weave politics into his comedy has also led some people to believe that he’s secretly right-wing radio maniac Alex Jones, which will make for a very interesting biopic if Linklater’s film follows that conspiracy theory. At the very least, it could end with a post-credits stinger where the actor Linklater hires to play Hicks takes off his shirt and start chugging barrels of chili or screaming about lizard men.