I loved All The Presidents Men, a film that brilliantly followed the Watergate scandal and the story about the fall of Nixon. Who will make the movie about the presidency of Donald J. Trump? What actor could capture the goofy vapidity combined with the narcissistic cruelty necessary to play him? I was thinking about this tonight as I watched the Lev Parnas interview on Rachel Maddow, I thought what a great character he would be in a movie. I then ran through the list of flaky, strange people who have been attached to Trump during his presidency. I sort of drafted out a rough screenplay in my head.
In another era, this movie would have been made by Oliver Stone with Martin Sheen probably playing Trump. Martin Scorsese would have cast Robert De Niro and somehow made it work, with Joe Pesci as Parnas.
I think the right director for this wacky story has to be David O. Russell who created movies like American Hustle, The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and Three Kings. Based on his work, I believe he would be able to capture both the pathos and humor inherent in having a buffoonish sociopath somehow become the leader of the most powerful nation in the history of the world.
The best actor going right now, and one that seems able to transform himself in to any character, is Christian Bale. I am thinking about his work in American Psycho, The Machinist and most recently Vice. He could pull off a convincing Trump I think.
(Also, love to one day see a Quentin Tarantino version just to see how he would work in Samuel L, Jackson and a flame thrower as a prop.)
I would start the movie with the revelations of the Zelinsky call by the whistleblower, but have flash backs to lots of earlier scenes to provide context for the audience. Got to figure out how to work the tweets in, maybe they could serve as sort of the Greek chorus and a window in to Trump’s mind.
Here are some of the must have characters for the movie as it follows the story of Trump’s impeachment, the brutal end of his presidency and the fall of those around him:
- Giuliani (Comic relief)
- Schiff (hero)
- Nunes (composite character for House enablers)
- Parnas
- Bolton
- Graham
- Pelosi
- Conway (as a composite character for his surrogates)
- Pompeo
- Barr
Of course there’s the long list of all the strange people around Trump from the beginning for the flash back scenes such as Putin, Kim, Daniels, Cohen, Mueller, etc, etc.
I bet someone has already commissioned the screen rights to this movie. I predict before this whole thing is over it will one of the great stories of all time. Nonfiction so bizarre that if it were pitched to Hollywood as a piece of fiction, it would be rejected as too implausible.
In comments feel free to add your own characters and who should play them. Also, we need a title.