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Dustin Hoffman is interested in playing a drunk in a new biopic on Maynard Nottage. Nottage was a PR pioneer in the silent film era, helping to create the all consuming celebrity culture we live in today. He lived a pretty wild life himself, touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and enjoying the booze and the babes he encountered along the way. His partying ways caused him to fall out of favor in the moralistic Prohibition era. And he died, a Hollywood outcast, in 1965.

But as if that’s not movie worthy enough, there is more! Nottage’s life was largely forgotten until he became famous for Mark Borkowski’s biography, The Frame Formula. Borkowski was given access to nottage’s private papers by his surviving heirs. But the London times did a little digging, and claims Nottage may not have even existed. They cited the US Census of 1920, and the archives of the L.A. Times as having no record of his existence. Borkowski and Nottage’s descendants have angrily denied the allegations, offering proof from his personal papers. This part of the plot will be really interesting to see in the film.

Controversial director Tony Kaye might be helming this project and is said to be interested in adapting the book. But they might pass him for a faster working director. I think people will love to see Dustin Hoffman tackling an unsettling character.

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