That biopic of former Vice President Dick Cheney first announced back in April 2017 appears to have found its George W. Bush, with Moon and Iron Man 2 actor Sam Rockwell reportedly in final negotiations to play the 43rd president of the United States.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rockwell is poised to join Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Steve Carell in the upcoming film, set to be directed by Adam McKay, the Oscar-winning co-writer and director of The Big Short. The film will reunite McKay with The Big Short cast members Bale and Carell, as well as Amy Adams, who co-starred in McKay’s 2006 comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
The film’s casting process has resulted in some intriguing combinations of actor and real-world character. So far, Bale is attached to play Cheney, who’s widely regarded as one of the most influential — for better or worse, depending who you ask — vice presidents in U.S. history. Cheney was the CEO and chairman of the Halliburton Company before serving as the country’s VP from 2001 to 2009, and also served in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush at various points. An aggressive advocate for the “War on Terror” and Iraq War, Cheney left office with a 13 percent approval rating.
Bale’s portrayal of Cheney and Rockwell’s performance as George W. Bush will be accompanied by Carell in the role of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Adams playing the role of Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney.
Rockwell follows Josh Brolin in the on-screen role of the younger Bush, with Brolin portraying the former governor of Texas and son of the 41st president in Oliver Stone’s 2008 film W. That film cast Richard Dreyfuss as Cheney.
Independence Day actor Bill Pullman, who played fictional President Thomas J. Whitmore in Rolan Emmerich’s 1996 alien invasion blockbuster, is also reported to have a mystery role in the biopic.
There’s still no word on the official title for McKay’s biopic of Cheney, as the film had previously been titled Backseat, only to abandon that title at some point in the last few months. The timeline for production on the film is also unknown at this point.
