Following Adam McKay‘s successful ascent from the comedy world of Anchorman and Step Brothers to the somehow even more absurd world of the global financial crisis in The Big Short, he’s moving onto US politics.
After bringing together a huge A-list cast for The Big Short, his follow up, a biopic of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is not going to be short of stars either.
Sam Rockwell has now joined the cast and will play for former President George W. Bush, and will team up with Christian Bale as Cheney, as well as Steve Carell, Amy Adams and Bill Pullman. Carell will play Donald Rumsfeld and Adams will play Cheney’s wife, Lynne Cheney.
The film is set to follow Cheney’s rise to what some have called the most powerful Vice President ever. McKay had previously explained why he was so interested in Cheney’s story:
“I’ve always found Cheney fascinating. 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”.
The Big Short somehow managed to balance absurdity, comedy and fourth wall breaking with the very real and devastating economic collapse of 2008, so it’s extremely interesting to wonder what McKay and another superb cast can do with the story of Cheney and his political cronies who, as McKay stated, helped shape modern America’s place in the world.
Rockwell playing Bush is just the icing on the cake, as Rockwell is arguably one of the most underrated actors around and is consistently excellent.
McKay is writing and directing the film, with Brad Pitt‘s Plan B producing just as it did with The Big Short. It’s the same team back together with a slightly tweaked but still excellent cast, so hopefully the still untitled biopic can be as good as McKay’s previous film as he continues his shift from directing out of their depth man-children to…err, oh wait.
#Peace.Love.Rockwell
