American comedian was at Lisbon contest this year where Israel's Netta took home the top prize.
By AMY SPIROUpdated: JUNE 20, 2018 21:15Netflix logo(photo credit: REUTERS)
Will Ferrell is starring in a new Netflix film about – you probably didn’t guess this one – the Eurovision song contest. But will it be set in Jerusalem?Netflix announced the new project on Monday, with Ferrell in the starring role in the film about the long-running, colorful singing competition.As controversy and squabbling swirls around next year’s Eurovision contest in Israel, Ferrell is setting about writing and starring in a film about the competition.Netflix has signed an impressive slate of comedy stars to star in original films recently, including Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James and more.But a feature about Eurovision will be quite foreign to American audiences, many of whom have barely heard of the competition. Deadline, which first announced the news of the film, explained to its readers that both ABBA and Celine Dion launched careers from winning the contest.Ferrell was actually in Lisbon earlier this year for the Eurovision, during which Netta Barzilai took home the win for Israel for the fourth time ever. He told reporters at the event that he has been watching since 1999, when his Swedish wife’s family introduced him to it.More than 186 million viewers across the world watched the Eurovision competition in 2018. In the US, the show was aired on Logo TV for the third year in a row, and garnered 74,000 viewers, or 0.02% of the TV-watching population.Can Will Ferrell make Americans love the Eurovision? That remains to be seen.