Danny DeVito Gets 'Eddie' Director Chair

Danny DeVito gets ready for his seventh film as a director, after signing on to direct Crazy Eddie, based on the life of disgraced consumer electronics leader Eddie Antar. The film will particularly revolve around his launching the successful Crazy Eddie store chain in the early 1970s, and his fall after he was slapped with a six-year prison sentence for fraud. DeVito, along with writer Peter Steinfeld, have acquired the film rights to his life. Antar’s store chain had 43 branches in its heyday, fuelled by memorable television ads where a hyperactive pitchman boasted of “insaaaaane” prices. The company later made a killing at Wall Street, but his falsification of records to manipulate his stock price got the best of him. He was forced out of his company; his deeds were discovered; and he fled, and was later kicked out, of Israel. He was asked to pay $150 million in fines, and served a prison term that ended in 1999. This is DeVito’s third biopic, more memorably for his 1992 flick Hoffa. He intends the film to become an honest look at Antar’s story, paralleled with recent events on Wall Street. He also says Antar’s associates are cooperating with the effort.