The one man who used to rule the late night television world before Leno, before Letterman, before Conan– was Johnny Carson. For 30 years, Carson was in every household with Ed McMahon at his side introducing the late night host with, “Heeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” When Carson retired from the gig in 92′, he went on to live out the rest of his days until his passing in 2005.
It surprises me that someone is finally jumping on making a film about Carson. John McLaughlin (BLACK SWAN, HITCHCOCK) and producer Tom Thayer have teamed with the estate of Carson to develop a biopic. The script will be written by McLaughlin.
The film will be based on, “the upcoming Bill Zehme book Carson The Magnificent: An Intimate Portrait. Zehme, who has written features on late-night combatants Jay Leno and David Letterman, was the only journalist Carson spoke to after his retirement, including an Esquire cover story about how Carson marked the 10th anniversary of abdicating the late-night throne. Zehme was a consultant and appeared in King Of Late Night, the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary on Carson’s career.”
McLaughlin is pounding out the script now. It will be interesting to see what the biopic actually covers since Carson was so private with his personal life. Apparently he was quite socially uncomfortable. He always seemed like he was a soft-spoken guy, but socially uncomfortable after all those years hosting? Crazier things have been said.
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