Daniel Radcliffe swaps magic wand for accordion to play Weird Al Yankovic in new movie

HOLLYWOOD -- "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is not the kind of musical bio-pic we've come accustomed to seeing. The movie is not a play by play of events in Yankovic's life, but a comedy that makes fun of the way a classic biography has been done. The parody movie about Weird Al's life stars Daniel Radcliffe in the title role.

"It was kind of just going, 'Oh. What else could Weird Al's biopic have been except a parody of biopics?' Like, I didn't know what to expect when I read it," said Radcliffe. "And then I started reading and I was like, 'Oh, right, of course it's this'. And it's perfect."

"The first third or so the movie you can kind of think, well, maybe this happened. Maybe this is real," said Yankovic. "And then about halfway through, you're going like, wait a minute! Come on!"

Eric Appel wrote and directed the film.

"We wanted to satirize the biopic genre," said Appel. "I mean everything from rock biopics, you know, 'The Doors' and 'Rocket Man' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody' all the way to a fictional biopic like 'Forrest Gump' and 'Boogie Nights' and, and create, you know, our own kind of crazy original story."

Evan Rachel Wood co-stars as Madonna, in a concept that is original, fun and completely, well, weird.

"She is going to love it. I know. I know!" said Wood. "I hold Madonna in such a high regard. But I hope she laughs about it. She clearly has a sense of humor because, you know, he covered 'Like a Surgeon' and I'm sure she's heard it and I'm sure she loves it. And so it's a funny homage to her and to that time."

The film pays tribute to Weird Al's talent over the years... one of the music world's top musical comedians. But as for his thoughts on his own legacy?

"I'd just like to be remembered 100 years from now as somebody that wore really nice shoes. That's my main thing," said Yankovic.

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" will be available to stream on The Roku Channel starting Friday, Nov. 4.