Who will play Hef?

Who will play Hef?

That’s the natural question that followed Monday’s news that Brett Ratner is set to direct “Playboy,” the Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment film about Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

Ratner, who recently played himself in an episode of HBO’s “Entourage” that would have done Hef proud-gorgeous, half dressed women splayed everywhere, of course - told Daily Variety that the material was too rich to pass up:

“Hef came from a puritanical upbringing and reinvented himself to be the godfather of the sexual revolution,” Ratner said. “He also used his magazine to advocate civil rights and free speech, and put James Brown on his show ‘Playboy After Dark’ when they didn’t put black performers on national television. He broke all kinds of taboos, especially in sexuality. I want to show it all, from the First Amendment struggles to his first orgy to the stroke in the 1980s that almost killed him.”

It’s too soon to say who will play Hef, his daughter Christie, who now runs his empire, as well as all those playboy bunnies and centerfolds. But that won’t stop us from playing everyone’s favorite parlour game, Casting Couch.