The Hollywood Reporter has announced the making of a feature film about the life of Ronald Reagan. According to the trade, the film entitled “Reagan,” will document the former actor-turned U.S. President’s life from childhood to the oval office. The film has a budget of $30M and is set to be released in the fall of 2011. It will be based on the biographies “The Crusader” and “God and Ronald Reagan” by author Paul Kengor. Mark Joseph and Ralph Winter are both co-producing the product with Jonas McCord (“Malice,” “Body“) having already written the script.
You may recall the failed miniseries that debuted on Showtime in 2003. “The Reagans” starred James Brolin telling Reagan’s story through a number of flashbacks about the attempted assassination in 1981. It was seen by only 1.2 million people. This feature film, however, takes a separate approach by telling Reagan’s life story and will not be concerned with the miniseries.
But the question remains, can we take this project seriously? Winter’s resume includes big blockbusters like the “X-Men” trilogy and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” whereas Joseph has worked on such films as “Ray” and “The Passion of the Christ.” McCord’s last script, however, was 2001’s “The Body” with Antonio Banderas, and his last producing gig was in 2006. Seems like a strange collection of talent for a biopic.
Joseph, however, seems to have faith in the development of the project with no regard to the failure of the miniseries: “Only in Hollywood could you make an insulting, condescending movie about a much-loved historical figure, hire an actor who loathes the man, watch it flop and then somehow conclude that Americans don’t want to see a movie about him. I watched Americans line up and wait for 10 hours for the simple privilege of passing by his closed casket. They love this man.” Clearly we have a patriot on our hands.
The producing and screenwriting credits don’t seem up to par to handle such a film, but perhaps a reputable director/actor will soon be attached to the project. No actors or director have signed on to handle the project, but THR has a poll up asking who you think should play Reagan: Andrew Garfield, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zac Efron, Chris Pine, or James Franco? Who’s to say any of these people are even interested, but to humor them a little, Garfield is surely too busy with “Spider-Man” to take on this role. Efron could be a possible choice — he’s got the looks, but does he have the talent? They also have to consider an actor to play the roles of young Reagan and President Reagan. Hopefully more talent will quickly become attached to the film to hold our interest otherwise THR could get out of control with its silly US Weekly-like polls that don’t seem beholden to reality.