The upcoming biopic Kinison will tell the story of standup legend Sam Kinison’s early days as a comic and his transition from Pentecostal preacher to vulgar loudmouth. It must have been a truly daunting task to go from shouting about God to just simply shouting about anything, but Kinison did it and he did it better than anyone until – spoiler alert – he died at the young age of 38 in a car accident in 1992.

But now a new generation will get to learn about Kinison’s comic talent, as the Larry Charles-directed biopic will star The Book of Mormon’s Josh Gad as the iconic comedian, based on a script by Rich Wilkes, who previously wrote… xXx? Seriously?

“There was nothing conventional about Sam Kinison and neither will be the cinematic interpretation of his life,” said [Producer David] Permut. “Larry Charles is the perfect director to bring Rich Wilkes’ incredible script to screen, and Josh Gad’s tremendous ability to morph into a role will bring great depth to Kinison’s larger than life persona.” The film picks up the Kinison story in the 80s, as he transitions from the family business of Pentecostal preaching and into stand up comedy in Hollywood. Kinison and Charles cracked that racket around the same time, when Kinison was tearing tickets for The Comedy Store on Sunset Blvd and waiting for his chance, while Charles was hustling to sell jokes to the headlining comics long before he became writer/producer of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. (Via Deadline)

Wilkes also wrote Airheads and The Jerky Boys, so… I have no idea how to feel about this at all.

Meanwhile, Gad continues to confuse the hell out of me, as people tell me all the time that he’s a comedic genius, but 1600 Penn was simply brutal. It was like he was forced to perform all of his lines while someone shouted, “Give me Chris Farley!” in one ear and another person shouted, “No, give me Jonah Hill!” in the other. But I’m thinking that I’ll get a much better chance to see his acting chops in the upcoming biopic Jobs, because that movie looks hilarious.

Either way, playing Kinison takes serious balls, because only one man was this good.