Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is now playing on the Roku Channel, but unfortunately for the prolific singer, the very partnership with Roku that allowed Weird Al Yankovic to make this unique movie will keep him away from the Oscars.
Yankovic's mock biopic, starring Daniel Radcliffe, had been announced earlier this year as a straight-to-streaming comedy film, yet that very business model means that no matter how good the actor’s performance or Yankovic's lyrics are in the movie, they won’t be able to compete for several awards reserved for theatrical releases. In a very on-brand spin, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story follows the singer’s rise to stardom in a fictionalized and exaggerated version of his career, portraying him as a chaotic rockstar, rather than the profoundly religious man he’s known to be.
This revelation came during an interview for Yahoo Entertainment, where Yankovic clarified that he won’t be able to opt for any Oscar nomination for the film he co-wrote alongside Eric Appel. “I've been begging, begging the Roku Channel for months to make it eligible, which all that would involve is letting it play in a theater in L.A. for one week. They do not want to do that,” Yankovic said. This decision is due to the company solely being a streaming service. Roku's reasoning is that the streamer would rather aim for an Emmy, seeing as it’s a TV company, instead of an Oscar, which is traditionally reserved for traditional films.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was produced jointly by Tango and Funny or Die. The latter is known for TV content such as Billy on the Street or Zach Galifianakis' series Between Two Ferns. Nevertheless, Yankovic remains hopeful for the overall prospects of the movie, whose fictional intent goes as far as depicting the artist establishing a relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood) in the Weird: The Al Yankovic trailer because, well, “it's a Hollywood biopic, it's entertainment.”
That’s not the only faux cameo packed in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, as the film also includes scripted appearances from Queen Elizabeth II and Coolio, both of whom passed away somewhat recently, with the monarch dying on the same day the movie was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. So far, Yankovic's biopic has been met with overwhelmingly good reception from critics, so maybe that Emmy isn’t a huge stretch of the imagination.
Roku's puzzling decision is a stark contrast to Netflix's strategy, as the latter has always made sure to give its movies theatrical releases in order to reap plenty of accolades come awards season, although maybe the box office performance of recent comedies also played a part in the decision to keep Weird: The Al Yankovic Story away from theaters.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is now playing exclusively on The Roku Channel.
Source: Yahoo! Entertainment