Via The Wrap:
Will Ferrell will play President Ronald Reagan in “Reagan,” a political satire written by Mike Rosolio, whose script appeared on the 2015 Black List.
Ferrell will produced under his Gary Sanchez Productions banner.
Ferrell is no stranger to political comedies, having starred in “The Campaign” and “Dick.” He also played President George W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live” and the Broadway show “You’re Welcome America.”
Set at the start of the ex-president’s second term when he was suffering from Alzheimer’s, “Reagan” follows the commander-in-chief as he succumbs to dementia and is convinced by an ambitious intern that he’s actually an actor playing the president in a movie.
Reagan wasn’t diagnosed with Alzheimer’s until 1994, almost a decade after the start of his second term. Liberals and Bill O’Reilly (same thing?) do like to speculate that it was an issue at the time but there is simply no evidence of it. In classic media bias fashion, the false premise is reported as fact here.
In my decades in stand-up, I’ve not had any sacred cows when it comes to subject matter so I have no problem with someone trying to put a comedic twist on anything. I do, however, have a problem with creative laziness, which this project reeks of. Admittedly, I haven’t read the script, but I have watched this dance for all of the aforementioned decades. Whenever a biased media-driven misconception about a Republican is the basis for comedy, bet the house that it will be given a bare minimum effort, largely because the joke has already been written.
It’s 2016, the mere fact that anyone was motivated to mine the “Reagan was a crazy old man” myth for comedy and then it got a green light is proof-positive that leftists do have sacred cows. I can assure you, there is more comedy gold in any ten-minute Al Gore speech from the last twenty years than in Reagan’s second term. Bill or Hillary Clinton would make great fodder for a dark comedy. Currently one heartbeat away from the presidency, Crazy Joe the Wonder Veep is a paste-eating spaz cartoon character.
You won’t be seeing movies about any of them soon, if ever.
Will Ferrell does have prodigious gifts when it comes to playing characters. His George W. Bush portrayal during his Saturday Night Live days was usually funnier than the material. This Reagan movie won’t be unfunny because it’s dealing with Alzheimer’s, it’ll be unfunny because it’s a joke that’s been told for over a quarter century to an audience that isn’t very discerning or demanding and there is no reason to be anything but lazy in the retelling. As long as you’re mocking a Republican or a Christian, you’re good to go in the film industry bubble.
Like Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football, I am always hopeful for a different outcome, but I’m obviously not holding my breath.
Now I should probably stop complaining and start writing a script about Joe Biden chewing his own foot.
Because you know he does.
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