Will Hulk Hogan still get a posthumous biopic starring Chris Hemsworth?

New York Post

3 days ago

Hulk Hogan never got the biopic treatment while he was alive.
The WWE legend, who died Thursday at age 71, was supposed to be played by Chris Hemsworth in a Netflix movie, but the project was scrapped entirely by the time Hogan passed away.
TMZ reported that the pro-wrestler died after 'a cardiac arrest' call was placed from his home in Clearwater, Florida.
11 Hulk Hogan at the Comedy Central Roast Of David Hasselhoff in 2010.
Getty Images
The biopic about Hogan was first announced by Netflix in February 2019, with Hemsworth, 41, to star and Todd Phillips set to direct.
The Hollywood Reporter reported at the time that John Pollono and Scott Silver were writing the script. Silver, 60, and Phillips, 54, co-wrote Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker,' which came out that same year.
11 Chris Hemsworth at the 'Limitless: Live Better Now' UK premiere in London on July 17.
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11 Todd Phillips attends the BAFTA Los Angeles Tea Party in Beverly Hills in January 2020.
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The biopic, per Deadline, was going to 'center on the rise of Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, and his 'Hulkamania' both in wrestling and as a pop culture icon.'
The outlet also confirmed that Hogan's life rights were acquired in the deal and that he joined the project as a consultant and executive producer.
However, years went by, and no progress was made on the film, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic causing production delays in Hollywood in 2020.
11 Hulk Hogan on 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno' in 1994.
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Hemsworth gave an update on potentially playing Hogan on the big screen in a June 2023 interview with Chris Van Vliet.
'Let's hope. I don't know what is happening with it at this point,' the 'Thor' star stated. 'But there is a good story there I would love to tell.'
'I know Todd Phillips has been deep with The Joker and we have had conversations,' Hemsworth added. 'Fingers crossed.'
11 Chris Hemsworth in 'Thor: Love and Thunder.'
©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
A year later, Phillips officially confirmed that the biopic was dead.
'I love what we were trying to do, but that's not going to come together for me,' the director told Variety in August 2024 while promoting 'Joker 2.'
During an appearance on the 'PDB Podcast' in October 2024, Hogan explained why his biopic never came to fruition.
11 Hulk Hogan at the premiere of 'War Of The Worlds' in June 2005.
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11 Hulk Hogan and Tony Atlas wrestling.
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'They kind of missed a beat in the contract. There was a payment that wasn't placed at the right time,' he claimed nine months before his death, adding that the film's script 'was amazing.'
'Scott Silver, who wrote the script for 'Joker,' 'Wolf of Wall Street,' a bunch of other movies, said, 'This is the best thing I've ever written,'' Hogan recalled. 'When I read it, I went, 'Oh my god, this is really good.''
The '3 Ninjas' star continued: 'At the time, I was in a space where I told him the positive stuff about wrestling and the negative stuff about wrestling. Spent about three years with this writer going back and forth. When I read it, it was just very, very dark, if that would be the right word. But it was probably what the public may want to see. When I read it I was like, 'Oh my gosh, if this thing comes out…''
11 Hulk Hogan speaks onstage during the 2024 Republican National Convention.
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11 Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Marvel.
©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
'There was talk that Chris Hemsworth had never played a real person before and he could probably win an Oscar, this thing is so powerful,' Hogan added.
But Hogan explained that he was worried the biopic would ultimately be 'the last thing people remember me for.'
'So I just was moving forward at the time, and when they business-wise missed a date, there was an option for me to pull out — and I did,' he revealed.
11 Hulk Hogan in the wrestling ring during his Hulkamania Tour in 2009.
Getty Images
The sports icon said at the time that he would still do the film with the same script, but acknowledged there's other avenues to share his life story.
'There's also documentary, a check and balance system, there's also a four-hour block of TV like the OJ [Simpson] stuff to tell the real story,' Hogan noted.
'The check and balance system, what it did do was it took me right up to the time I turned bad guy. Until I turned into 'Hollywood Hogan.' So if this movie did blow through the roof that they expected it would, then there would be another one which would be really cool.'
11 Hulk Hogan at Maple Leaf Gardens in Canada.
Toronto Star via Getty Images
Hogan also made it clear he wanted 'creative control' over his biopic and that the film needed to 'be a balance.'
When the host asked Hogan if someone could make a film about him without his permission, the WWE legend replied, 'They can do it, but they could be in a really bad position legally if they don't have me involved.'
'There's so many hills and valleys when you do something without someone's permission,' he added.
The Post reached out to Netflix and Hemsworth for comment.