Expectations were high when packed theatres screened the much-hyped biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, at the Toronto Film Festival.

This was, after all, the story of the legendary parody songsmith who had hit records changing the lyrics to famous songs including Eat It (Michael Jackson’s Beat It), Another One Rides the Bus (Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust) and My Bologna (The Knack’s My Sharona).

But a funny thing happened on the way to making a biopic starring Daniel Radcliffe as the Hawaiian shirt-wearing accordion-playing legend. Instead, this film became a parody of a biopic itself: spoofing his childhood as an accordion prodigy with a cruel father, his discovery by his idol, Dr. Demento (Rainn Wilson), his struggle and near death from alcoholism and his whirlwind romance with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood).

The film was inspired by writer-director Eric Appel’s 2010 Funny or Die fake movie trailer, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which went viral at the time. But, as Al Yankovic, Eric Appel and Daniel Radcliffe spoke at a post-screening Q&A in TIFF, they were asked how a fake movie trailer became a real film 12 years later.

“I got out a call out of the blue from Al in 2019, where he said that he’d been playing the video at his concerts for about a decade and after every show, people would come up and ask him, ‘When can I see this movie?’ as if that one was a real trailer,” Appel explains. “But Bohemian Rhapsody had come out, and Rocket Man was about to come out, so Al thought it was the right time.”

The pair co-wrote the script after spending a lot of time watching other biopics they could parody. “We made notes, and we worked on all the tropes,” Yankovic says. Appel laughs and adds, “yes but it wasn’t limited to musical biopics; it’s even Forrest Gump and Boogie Nights, because we were trying to just tell the most epic biopic of all time!”

Daniel Radcliffe was initially hesitant when he heard about the project. “When these guys first approached me, I was kind of like, ‘Wait, what?’ he says. “But as soon as you read the script, you’re like, ‘Oh, there is nothing else that Al’s biopic could be except this movie!’  As soon as I saw what they were trying to do it was like, sign me up and I’ll start trying to learn the accordion!”

Radcliffe admits it was challenging to take on such an all-encompassing role with such a tight schedule around the 18-day shoot. “Honestly, my main prep for just learning all the choreography and the songs and the fight choreography and all the other scenes before we filmed them,” he says. “By the time I came to this project, I had been a fan for a while, so I was already quite steeped in his songs and got a head start on that. Then hopefully from being around him, I tried to absorb what was relevant and play a version of Al that has not been edited.”

Which begs the question to the self-confessed fan, Daniel Radcliffe: what’s your favorite Weird Al parody? “I feel like with most fans it rotates and changes,” he responds, “but my answer today is Jurassic Park – because it’s both a perfect parody of MacArthur Park and a perfect re-telling of Jurassic Park and so well done.”

The 2013 fake movie trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story:

The real movie trailer for the 2022 film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: