Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Amy Adams Circling Adam McKay's Dick Cheney Biopic

By Justin Kroll, Variety

After diving into the economic crisis of 2008, The Big Short’s Adam McKay is taking aim at one of Washington’s most polarizing figures.

Sources tell Variety that Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and Amy Adams are in talks to star in McKay’s untitled Dick Cheney biopic for Paramount. Sources say Bale is on board to play the former vice president, Carell would portray Donald Rumsfeld, and Adams would play Lynne Cheney.

McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions and Brad Pitt’s Plan B is on board to produce.

McKay will direct from his own screenplay with the studio and producers aiming to shoot the movie in the spring for an awards-season push, similar to Big Short. Producers are Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner through Plan B along McKay and his Gary Sanchez partners, Will Ferrell and Kevin Messick.

Cheney served in the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush before becoming the CEO of Halliburton. He was VP between 2001 and 2009 under George W. Bush and was at the center of foreign policy as that administration pursued post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq along with “enhanced interrogation” programs against suspected terrorists.

McKay has been vocal recently about his countless hours spent researching Cheney and his climb to power, and has been working hard to get Bale on board as the titular politician.

Bale, who was nominated for best supporting actor for his work on The Big Short, can be seen next in Scott Cooper’s western Hostiles. Carell recently wrapped Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying and can be seen next in Battle of the Sexes, where he will play Bobbie Riggs. Adams is coming off a busy 2016 that included Nocturnal Animals, Arrival, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.