Ronald Reagan is latest US president to get Hollywood biopic
A biopic about the Oval Office's 40th resident is set to start filming spring 2017, directed by Sean McNamara, adding to the growing list of movies about US Presidents. Barack Obama, Lyndon Johnson and George Washington are also subjects in the sights of Hollywood studios.
White House occupant from 1981 to 1989, Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, ticks plenty of boxes as a feature film hero. This former B-movie actor grew up with an alcoholic father, for example, and sustained injuries following an assassination attempt when he later became president. However, "Reagan," penned by Howie Klausner ("Space Cowboys"), focuses on his pre-Washington life -- 1947-1952 in particular, when he presided the Screen Actors Guild.
David Henrie (Ted Mosby's son in "How I Met Your Mother") will play the former US President in his younger years, while Robert Davi ("Die Hard") is set to star as Leonid Brejnev, who led the USSR from 1964 to 1982.
Barack Obama, Lyndon Johnson and George Washington biopics in the pipeline
Due to start filming in spring 2017, "Reagan" adds to the already long list of biopics focusing on US presidents. In fact, August 26 sees "Southside With You" -- the first movie based on the current White House resident, Barack Obama -- land in US theaters. Far from political affairs, this first movie from Richard Tanne focuses on Obama's first date with his future wife, Michelle, in the summer of 1989 in Chicago, where both were working at a law firm.
Rob Reiner ("A Few Good Men") has just finished filming "LBJ," a biopic about 1960s US President Lyndon Johnson. Due for presentation at the Toronto Film Festival in September, the movie stars Woody Harrelson, Bill Pullman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The 36th US president was already the subject of "All the Way," a TV movie screened in May on HBO with Bryan Cranston in the lead role. The US cable network has a taste for serializing the lives of major figures from American history. After focusing on John Adams in 2008, then Lyndon Johnson, Sean Penn will soon play Andrew Jackson in a mini-series called "American Lion."
Several famous directors already have US president-themed movies under their belts, such as Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" and Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon." Oliver Stone is a specialist in the genre, with "Nixon," "JFK" and "W." to his name. The latest in line could come from Martin Scorsese, who is in talks to direct "The General," looking at George Washington's pre-president days.
