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Writer Peter Morgan Directing the Final Film in His Tony Blair Trilogy

by Alex Billington
December 16, 2008

Riding on of the success of Frost/Nixon, Oscar nominated screenwriter Peter Morgan has announced that he will make his directorial debut with the third film in his own Tony Blair trilogy. The previous two films in the trilogy include Stephen Frears' British TV movie The Deal and Frears' follow-up The Queen, which won Helen Mirren an Oscar. The final film is titled The Special Relationship and will yet again star Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. The Deal focused on the rise of Tony Blair, while The Queen touched on his early years as Prime Minister and relationship with Queen Elizabeth II after Princess Diana's death.

Initially, The Special Relationship was going to focus on both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as we outlined in a previous article last year. However, Morgan has since decided to narrow the focus (most likely because of Oliver Stone's W.) to the intimate relationship between Blair and Clinton between 1997 and 2000. Morgan did extensive research in Washington D.C. and Little Rock, Arkansas last summer. He is now planning to both write and direct The Special Relationship while Kathleen Kennedy (War of the Worlds, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) will produce the project.

I actually saw The Queen numerous times in 2006 and thought it was a fantastic film (read my review). I haven't seen The Deal or Frost/Nixon yet, however I'm certain Morgan's work on both of those was extraordinary as well. Not only am I very interested in seeing the story he has put together focusing on Blair and Clinton, but I'm curious to see how he'll handle the directing duties as well. While Morgan's script for The Queen was Oscar worthy, I also attribute a lot of its excellence to both director Stephen Frears and Michael Sheen. At least he'll have Sheen back to help him with The Special Relationship.

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