Director Richard Linklater has set up the biopic of comedian Bill Hicks as his next project. The 58-year-old filmmaker, best known for critically acclaimed films such as "Before" trilogy, "Dazed and Confused" and "Boyhood", will write and direct the new feature for Focus Features, reported Indiewire.

Hicks was raised as a Southern Baptist and began performing comedy in the late 1970s in Texas. He toured extensively during the 1980s, achieving widespread success for his act, which used dark comedy to tackle social issues of the day. The comedian died from pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32.