Serling may have died at 50, but he sure looked a lot worse for wear as he got older -- due to his smoking habit, perhaps? I think Schrieber could play the part, depending on what parts of Serling's life it tackled (obviously, he's not going to work as the writer in his 20s).
I see no physical resemblance between the two.
I just hope it talks about some of his TV work before the Twilight Zone. Apparently he was a well regarded dramatic writer before he created that series.
Indeed, one of TV's leading playwrights, up there with Paddy Chayefsky and Reginald Rose and the like. He got frustrated by the censorship of TV, which inhibited his ability to write seriously about racism or war or the like, so it occurred to him that if he told those stories through fantasy allegory, he could sneak them past the censors. I once saw a clip of an interview with Dan Rather where Rather asked if doing TZ meant that Serling was giving up on the serious TV writing he was known for, and Serling said "Yes" with a totally straight face, claiming that he was changing his tune and only writing escapist fluff from then on. And then he went on to prove to the television audience just how sophisticated fantasy and SF could be. It'd be cool to see that adapted in the biopic.
By the way, I once saw a biopic in which Rod Serling appeared as a character, played by... Rod Serling. It was an episode of
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse called "The Man in the Funny Suit," and starred Ed Wynn and his son Keenan Wynn as themselves, dramatizing the true story (reputedly) of how Ed Wynn tried to move past his typecasting as a clownish figure and establish himself in dramatic roles, the kind Keenan was known for. It was in Serling's
Requiem for a Heavyweight (the original live version on
Playhouse 90) that Ed Wynn got his big break at drama, starring alongside Keenan. And four years later in "Funny Suit" they recreated that production and the events surrounding it, along with Serling, director Ralph Nelson, one or two of the other cast members, and Red Skelton also playing themselves.
But who should be cast as Serling? The Deadline comments already have a couple great suggestions: Liev Schreiber and Nestor Carbonnel.
