‘Reagan’ Was Almost a Will Ferrell Comedy
Presumably because movies like Joker and Cruella proved that audiences just love villain origin stories, this week we’re getting Reagan, a brand new biopic about the 40th President of the United States starring Dennis Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller and Jon Voight. Oh, and Creed frontman Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra, because this movie is clearly some kind of collective fever dream.
But years before Quaid saddled up for the role (literally), we nearly got a movie about Ronald Reagan, also called Reagan, starring Will Ferrell. That may sound kind of odd, but it’s not like he didn’t have years of experience playing terrible presidents.
Back in 2016, it was reported that Ferrell’s production company, Gary Sanchez, had acquired Reagan, a screenplay by Mike Rosolio that appeared on the annual Black List, which collects the year’s best unproduced film scripts. Ferrell was attached to star in the revisionist comedy that found Reagan in his second term, right as he “begins to fall into dementia” (Reagan officially revealed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994).
So “an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the commander-in-chief that he is an actor playing the president in a movie.” The intern, Frank, has to convince Reagan that he’s always making a movie, even when no cameras are present, going so far as to introduce Mikhail Gorbachev as actor Ernest Borgnine. It’s kind of like a reverse-Bowfinger set in the White House, if that makes sense.
Prior to the Ferrell deal, a live reading of Reagan was staged by The Black List, featuring actors like Nathan Fillion, John Cho, Lena Dunham and James Brolin as Reagan, which is especially amusing, considering that Brolin previously played the president in the controversial TV movie The Reagans.
The project was swiftly condemned by Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis, who accused it of making light of Alzheimer’s. Reagan’s son, Michael, tweeted at the filmmakers: “You should be ashamed, all of you.” And Page Six claimed that the script was part of “Hollywood’s plan to dethrone Reagan’s legacy.”
Seemingly bowing to the pressure, Ferrell backed out of the film, with his spokesperson telling the press, “While it is by no means an ‘Alzheimer’s comedy’ as has been suggested, Mr. Ferrell is not pursuing this project.”
In the wake of the backlash, The Hollywood Reporter obtained a copy of the script, and concluded that it was “actually a good-natured and well-researched comedy that offers an ‘alternate take’ on seismic events in American history.” The outlet compared it to Dick, the underrated 1999 Watergate satire that similarly offered a playful riff on presidential history.
Although the review did concede that the central premise is that Reagan “had no knowledge of where he was or what he was doing throughout his entire second term,” which has been a matter of some debate.
At very least, this Reagan likely would have been more interesting than the one starring Randy Quaid’s brother and a late ‘90s cock-rocker.
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