Christian Bale, Steve Carell and Amy Adams are in talks to join Adam McKay‘s untitled Dick Cheney biopic, according to Variety. Sources tell the site that Bale would be playing the former Vice President. Carell would play Donald Rumsfeld and Adams would play Lynne Cheney.
Cheney is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential U.S. Vice Presidents in history, having served under (and, as many regard, OVER) George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. The former Halliburton chairman/CEO — who also served in the Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush administrations — was a hawkish proponent of the War on Terror and the Iraq War, and eventually left office with a 13% approval rating. He was previously portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss in Oliver Stone’s 2008 film W.
“I’ve always found Cheney fascinating,” McKay previously told Deadline. “Questions of what drove him, what his beliefs were; but once we started digging I was astounded at how much he had shaped modern America’s place in the world and how shocking the methods were by which he gained his power.”
McKay has reportedly spent “countless hours” researching the former VP for the Dick Cheney biopic.
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B will produce the Dick Cheney movie with McKay and his Gary Sanchez partners, Will Ferrell and Kevin Messick. McKay began development on the Cheney movie shortly after winning his Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Big Short last year year.
