He might be among the toughest actors to track down for work, but that doesn’t stop people wanting to hire Bill Murray. According to Vulture, Morning Glory director Roger Michell is looking to secure the mercurial comic actor to play US president Franklin D Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the Hudson.
Adapted from the BBC radio play, the plot will follow the odd love affair between the Pres and distant cousin Margaret Stuckley, and will chronicle the events that occur when the American leader was visited at his upstate New York cottage residence in June 1939.
And the couple stopping by? King George VI and his wife (yes, the pair played so memorably by Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech). There’s no word yet on who will play Stuckley, Eleanor Roosevelt or the royal couple yet (no, we don’t think they could tempt Firth and Bonham Carter to star again), but Michell plans to kick off shooting in July.
Richard Nelson adapted the script from his play, which was originally broadcast in 2009 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the trip. Film4 has been developing the project for a while now and even turned down The King’s Speech because it was committed to getting this George VI story on screen. The company is probably wishing it plumped for both of ‘em now…