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Jared Leto will play Hugh Hefner in upcoming biopic; internet says, ‘Nah’

Jared Leto, right, will portray the late Hugh Hefner in an upcoming film. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times; Andy Kropa / Associated Press)

Brett Ratner’s long-simmering Hugh Hefner biopic is back on track, with Jared Leto slipping into the Playboy founder’s iconic smoking jacket.

The project originally pitched by Ratner in 2007 found new life this year, entering early development with the director’s RatPac Entertainment even before Hefner’s death last week, the Hollywood Reporter said Tuesday.

“Jared is an old friend,” Ratner told THR about his new leading man. “When he heard I got the rights to Hef’s story, he told me, ‘I want to play him. I want to understand him.’ And I really believe Jared can do it. He’s one of the great actors of today.”

The internet, however, appears less enthused about the Ratner-directed project, which is something of a perfect storm of problematic people.

Ratner hastily resigned from producing the 2012 Oscars after a rapid-fire series of incidents involving controversial statements about his sex life and use of a homophobic slur.

Leto went above and beyond with his Method acting on the set of “Suicide Squad,” including sending dead animals — and live ones! – to his co-stars, as well as maybe, just perhaps, sending people bodily fluids?

And then there’s Hefner, whose recent death unleashed a slew of memorials praising his destruction of puritanical ideas regarding sex and scathing critiques about his treatment of women and his reinforcement of unobtainable beauty standards.

In short, the most common response on social media to the upcoming project for dudes, by dudes, about dudes can be summed up in a single sentiment: “Keep it.”

Wanna bet the all-girl “Lord of the Flies” team is breathing a little easier now?