'Brother Sam' set for HBO

Dan Fogler to portray comic Kinison in biopic

By MICHAEL FLEMING

HBO launched comic Sam Kinison's star, and now the pay web will memorialize his life and death with "Brother Sam," a film Tom Shadyac will direct.

Dan Fogler will play the manic comic.

Basis for the telepic is "Brother Sam: The Short, Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison," a memoir written by his brother and manager, Bill Kinison, and Steve Delsohn. A new script has been written by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the writer-directors of "American Splendor."

David Permut is producing in a co-production of Permut Presentations and Shadyac's Shady Acres. Steve Longi is co-producer and Bill Kinison is exec producer.

Shadyac and Permut spent eight years trying to get the project made as a feature at Universal Pictures, but the project stalled and seems a better fit at HBO, which just set up a biopic of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham for Laura Linney to star in and Robert Benton to direct, based on a Joan Didion script.

Kinison's star was launched by an appearance on HBO's Rodney Dangerfield-hosted "Young Comedians" special in 1984. Fogler is the Tony-winning star of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," who transitioned to features with "Balls of Fury."ends

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