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Michael Douglas to Play Ronald Reagan in Political Indie 'Reykjavik'

by Ben Pearson
August 29, 2012
Source: THR

Michael Douglas is no stranger to playing the U.S.A.'s Commander in Chief, considering he played the an American President in, well, The American President back in 1995. It looks like he's about to suit up again, this time as a real person instead of a fictional one. THR reports that Douglas will portray President Ronald Reagan in Reykjavik, a political drama that spans a three day meeting of peace talks between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (a role that has yet to be filled) in the titular Icelandic city after the nuclear fallout of Chernobyl. Kevin Hood (Becoming Jane) wrote the script, and the project has a new director.

Ridley Scott was once attached to direct, but now he'll just produce under his Scott Free banner. Replacing him is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell, who also helmed the disappointing Prince of Persia for Disney. Newell is a hard filmmaker to get a read on, considering his long career featuring a wide variety of projects, but it's a good bet that a contained political drama will fare a lot better than his overblown attempt at a video game tentpole (after all, the Prince of Persia script was awful).

Filming begins in Germany during March of 2013, and since this project has a budget of around $10 million, it will make the second intimate project in a row for Douglas, who is currently working on the Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra for Steven Soderbergh and HBO. I'm glad to see Douglas bounce back from his recent scare with cancer and get back to work, since he's one of the better actors of his generation and he's always entertaining to watch. Seeing him transform into Ronald Reagan should be a cool bit of movie magic, and even though this isn't a big studio film, we'll keep our eyes on this one.

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