A new contender for oddest story of the year has just hit the news tickers: there’s going to be a movie about the life of Herve Villechaize.  Scaramanga’s erstwhile henchman, who shot to fame in that role and on the TV show Fantasy Island as Mr. Rourke’s underling and bell ringer.  Villechaize committed suicide in 1993.  Before he did, however, he conducted his last sit down interview with former journalist, Sacha Gervasi, who is slated to write and direct the film.

As Variety reports, My Dinner With Herve will be produced by Oscar-winning scribe Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and Mandate Pictures with First Rite and Sony Pictures.  According to Gervasi, who penned The Terminal and made his directorial debut this past year with Anvil: The Story of Anvil (check out Devin’s piece on it), “Herve wasn’t just a pop culture icon; he was one of the most charming, cultured and dangerous people I’ve ever met. His is the story of a unique misfit trying to find his place in the world.” 

That’s no small statement (honestly, I didn’t mean that as a pun even as I was writing it) considering that Villechaize, who became increasingly depressive in his later years, reportedly once held his agent at gunpoint.  It was with a gun that he ended his life on September 4, 1993. 

No reports on casting yet, but it’s not a stretch (okay, that one I meant) that Verne Troyer and Wee Man are probably already burning up their agents’ cell phones.