First Look At Daniel Radcliffe As Allen Ginsberg In Kill Your Darlings

In the discussion of an actor looking like the real person that they’re playing, David Cross as Allen Ginsberg in I’m Not There ranks pretty high. From the receding hairline to the thick rimmed glasses to the bushy beard, Cross was a perfect doppelganger in Todd Haynes’ 2007 film, but looking at the first set photos fromKill Your Darlings, a movie in which Daniel Radcliffe plays the famous beat poet, Cross might be given a run for his money. 

Set in 1994, Kill Your Darlings tells the story of a murder at Columbia University that brought together luminaries of the beat generation including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. In addition to Radcliffe the film also stars Elizabeth Olsen, Michael C. Hall, Ben Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh and David Cross (funnily enough, as Ginsberg’s father, Louis). The script was written by Krokidas and Austin Bunn and is currently in production. There is no distributor in place yet.

Because the new movie, directed by John Krokidas, is set back in the 1940s, Radcliffe is actually playing a much younger version of Ginsberg than Cross did, but the resemblance is just as uncanny. It’s amazing what a tweed jacket, a new set of spectacles and a fresh haircut can do. EW has the full-size pic, but you can see a smaller version of the photo below as well as a photo of the real young Ginsber