Will Ferrell To Portray Ronald Reagan in Political Comedy 'Reagan'; Draws Backlash About Alzheimers

By Kris Rollins
Will Ferrell to play Ronald Reagan in Political Comedy 'Reagan'
 Getty Images

Will Ferrell has played his fair share of political characters.  On the comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live, he played the role of former president, George W. Bush. He also played the role in the Broadway play, You're Welcome America. In a political comedy movie, The Campaign, he ran as a Democratic candidate trying to get a seat in Congress. Now Ferrell will be taking on the role of another former U.S. president- Ronald Reagan.

According to Variety, a Black List script with the title of Reagan, written by Mike Rosolio is in the process of being shopped to studios.  The Black List is a yearly catalog of the top unproduced scripts in Hollywood.

The movie is said to be taking place at the beginning of Ronald Reagan's 2nd term as president, "when he falls into dementia and an ambitious intern is tasked with convincing the commander in chief that he is an actor playing the president in a movie."

People are not happy to hear about this movie being done. Angry tweets are popping up today, and unhappy responses flood the comments of the exclusive announcement by Variety from yesterday. Michael Reagan, president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, and son of Ronald Reagan tweeted, "Alheimers(sic) is not a comedy first it robs you then it kills you.#Alzheimers"

Lynne Watterson commented on Variety's article,

"Shame on you WIll Farrell. I loved Old School and watching your impersonations on SNL. No More. There is absolutely NOTHING even remotely funny about Alzheimer's disease. It robs you of you mental faculties until you can not remember your name, feed yourself, or even go to the bathroom. You end up in a nursing home being fed with your diaper changed. Watching a loved one go through this has to be torture - and you think it is FUNNY? Whether you agree with the politics of Ronald Reagan or not, he was our President. He deserves more respect than this, as would ANYONE with this disease. I for one will never view your comedy as funny again. You are lower than low."

Alyssa Canobbio, a media analyst at Free Beacon, complained about the anti-right wing slant in her tweet that stated, "I don't appreciate this. We don't make satire movies about JFK or other liberal sweethearts."

Even non- Reagan fans tweeted their disapproval. Sam@movnt_  says, "I'm far from a Reagan fan but dementia isn't a funny thing to make a movie about..."

Will this movie be made after the big backlash? It is currently without a director, but irreverent comedy films have made their way to the big screen before. The script has a popularity in Hollywood, and Lena Dunham and John Cho have even performed a live read of it back in March.

If the film comes to fruition, it will be script-writer Rosolio's first big screen movie.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

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