Josh Gad to play Roger Ebert in 'Russ & Roger'

Los Angeles: Josh Gad has signed on to portray film critic Roger Ebert in "Russ & Roger", a comedy centering on the film critic and filmmaker Russ Meyer.

Will Ferrell is already on board to play Meyer, the director who made movies like "Wild Gals of the Naked West" and "Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill!", said the Hollywood Reporter.
"Russ & Roger" is described as a debaucherous comedy centering on two outsiders who defied the Hollywood establishment and made one of the first X-rated films ever released by a major movie studio.

Michael Winterbottom is directing the feature, which has a script by Chris Cluess. Gad's involvement was initially rumoured last winter, even before the project had its director.

The 34-year-old became a household voice when he gave life to Olaf the snowman in Disney's "Frozen". He starred with Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage in Sony's action-comedy "Pixels" and just wrapped production on Disney's live-action take on "Beauty and the Beast", in which he plays Le Fou.