EXCLUSIVE: We hear that Lionsgate is in talks for Jay Roach’s Roger Ailes feature project. Some say they are pretty far down the road, but nothing is completely signed yet.
Annapurna pulled the plug on the project after the production cost soared north of $35M. Amblin was said to be in the mix after the news last week, and then was out. Focus Features also recently passed. When it comes to political dramas on screen, Lionsgate was involved in Oliver Stone’s W. about George W. Bush’s rise to the presidency and his time in office. As we understand, BRON Studios is still co-financing the movie and producing. They have another political drama coming out on Election Day, Jason Reitman’s Gary Hart movie The Front Runner via Sony.
Roach’s Ailes project is written by The Big Short Oscar-winning screenwriter Charles Randolph and it’s a who’s who star ensemble with John Lithgow as Ailes, Malcolm McDowell as News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch. Charlize Theron is attached to play Megyn Kelly, Margot Robbie is Kayla Pospisil, and Nicole Kidman is Gretchen Carlson, the FNC anchor who sued Ailes for sexual harassment two years ago. Allison Janney and Kate McKinnon also star. The Ailes movie centers on a group of female employees and correspondents who decide they’ve had enough with the sexist FNC culture and battle back against their boss. Robbie’s character is a fictional Fox News producer.
Showtime also has its own Roger Ailes miniseries in the works.
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