By Hoai-Tran Bui/May 22, 2018 9:30 am EST
Soon a slew of allegations about Ailes’ history of sexual harassment came forward, including from another prolific anchor Gretchen Carlson, and Ailes was forced to resign in 2016. Ailes died a year later at 77.
Annapurna, which is already making a Dick Cheney biopic with director Adam McKay, is financing and producing the project. Roach will helm the film with a script by Charles Randolph, who won an Oscar for co-writing The Big Short.
But perhaps this premise could salvaged in Roach’s hands. The director has recently gained acclaim for taking on real-life political events in his movies, pivoting from the slapstick comedies he’s mostly been known for. His Sarah Palin-centric HBO film Game Change earned him praise, as well as 2015’s Trumbo and 2017’s Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. He’s also attached to direct the TV adaptation of Michael Wolff’s explosive Trump book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
And there’s also Randolph, who penned the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Big Short — a movie about a group of morally grey people who take advantage of the housing market crash. He was able to portray the hedge fund managers, investors, and salesmen played by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt as alternately sympathetic and repugnant. Perhaps he will walk that same tightrope with the Roger Ailes movie.
