Oh boy. Fox News is gearing up the outrage machine right now. Most conservatives view Ronald Reagan as the champion of their movement, a true saint of conservative values. They said his name so much during the recent Presidential debates you'd think he had risen from the grave and run for a third term. So a movie about him that doesn't show him in the most favorable light? Well, that's going to be an issue, even if he's played by Will Ferrell.
Variety reports that Ferrell will star in Reagan, a film about the 40th President that seems to center on a favorite theory of Reagan detractors. The Black List script by Mike Rosolio “begins at the start of the ex-president’s second term when he falls into dementia and an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the commander in chief that he is an actor playing the president in a movie.” Many have come to speculate that Reagan was so unaware of what was going on due to the dementia that his second term was basically run by his wife Nancy, VP George H.W. Bush, and other advisers.
Rosolio's script has become a favorite around Hollywood, leading to a live table read led by John Cho and Lena Dunham that took place last month.
Ferrell has made political comedy a fixture of his career. He famously played a bumbling George W. Bush in numerous SNL sketches, even taking the impression to Broadway. He also starred in the political comedy, The Campaign.
This sounds pretty early on as a director is still being sought (Jay Roach, maybe?), but it's guaranteed to be controversial no matter when it arrives.
