HBO Travels to the Dark Side with Cheney Mini-Series

HBO announced last night via Deadline that they have “optioned” Barton Gellman’s best-selling non-fiction book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency with plans to produce a mini-series based on the political rise of the controversial former Vice President. Rick Cleveland, a veteran writer well regarded for his work on Six Feet Under and the West Wing – he shared a writing Emmy with Aaron Sorkin for the episode: “In Excelsis Deo,” from season one – has been tapped to write the series, which, will also draw from the PBS Frontline documentary The Dark Side.

This announcement comes only a few weeks after HBO made news by casting Julianne Moore to play Sarah Palin in a made-for-cable film adaptation of John Heilemann‘s and Mark Halperin‘s conjecture heavy best-seller Game Change. With two high-profile, politically themed projects slated to begin production later this year – HBO hopes to recreate the critical and commercial success of 2008’s Recount, which capitalized on the heightened political appetite of American television viewers during the last presidential election.

Dick Cheney was most recently played by Richard Dreyfuss in Oliver Stone’s uneven George W. Bush biopic W. Though Dreyfuss is a public conservative and frequent Fox News contributor, here’s hoping HBO and executive producer Paula Weinstein can convince him to reprise the role of America’s favourite Sith Lord. After all – it’s a role Dreyfuss was born to play.



Advertisement