Tim Matheson has been cast as President Ronald Reagan and Cynthia Nixon as First Lady Nancy Reagan in the adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Reagan, for National Geographic Channel. And, in a Hitchockian move, O’Reilly will have a small role in the project, which he has declined to name except to say it was “a pretty fun role.”
“We wanted to get somebody in both roles who, No. 1 had a lot of experience, because these aren’t easy roles. They aren’t caricature roles. Matheson and Nixon are accomplished, and they’ve played a lot of roles, but they’re also not strongly identified with any one role,” says O’Reilly. Some actors considered to play Ronald Reagan, “were closely identified” with previous roles, which is not the case here, the Fox News Channel primetime star said.
Rod Lurie (The Contender, Commander in Chief) is directing the script by Eric Simonon.
National Geographic Channel Killing Reagan book coversaid last September it was continuing its successful partnership with Scott Free Productions to produce and premiere this adaptation of the latest book in the “Killing” series from O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Their Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy and Killing Jesus are the most-watched programs in NatGeo Channel history (Kennedy and Jesus also were Emmy nominated in 2014 and 2015, respectively).
Shooting in Atlanta, the project is scheduled to air in late October, so as to debut right before the presidential election. Killing Reagan scheduled to premiere on National Geographic Channel in the U.S. and in 171 countries in 45 languages, including Nat Geo Mundo.
