Back in October 2007 it was announced screenwriter Peter Morgan was starting work on a sequel to the recent Oscar-winner The Queen which would dig into former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair’s relationships with U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The film was said to be focusing on Blair’s reaction to the handover of power from Clinton, a natural liberal ally, to Bush, who came from the other end of the political spectrum.
Since that announcement not a word was heard as the film would mark the third picture in a “Blair trilogy” of sorts following the Channel 4 TV movie The Deal and 2006’s The Queen, all three starring Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. Well, it appears the time has come for the new film to see the light of day, but instead of theaters it looks like it will be heading to the small screen over on HBO.
Variety announces Dennis Quaid will star as President Clinton, Sheen will return as Blair and Julianne Moore will play Hillary Clinton in The Special Relationship, an HBO film about the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between the newly installed PM and the U.S. president.
So it appears Morgan took the script and made a good decision in abandoning the George W. Bush angle and will choose to focus on the Clinton era. However, the project isn’t greenlit yet, but it is expected to mark the directing debut of Morgan who last adapted his play Frost/Nixon into last year’s Oscar-nominated film.
I, for one, can’t wait to see this and was equally excited to see the other version since the Blair/Bush relationship would have made for some great drama, but I can understand why such a storyline was abandoned.
