"Well..." Casting Decisions In The Motion Picture "Reagan" (2024)

Kevin “Johnny Drama” Dillon?

Yes.

A Play In Two Acts:

Most of the film was shot in Oklahoma due to a then-new tax rebate law launched by the state in 2020, and due to COVID-19 restrictions that were much lighter compared to other states. Filming took place in Oklahoma City, Guthrie, Edmond, and Crescent, Oklahoma. Using CGI and special effects, the Oklahoma City Capitol Building was dressed up to look like the United States Capitol Building, and the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in Guthrie doubled for The White House.

During production there was a COVID outbreak among the crew.

Plan on seeing this tomrrow. No idea what to expect, except for the high probability of bad makeup.

Robert Davi is my pick, that’s just random ass casting

Gotta go with Stapp as Sinatra

Stapp is going to win this in a walk, most of this cast is just a list of actors who need the work

leslie ann down as margaret thatcher is some 1992 tv movie of the week casting

WaPo review: https://archive.is/GNR7u

"'Reagan' is a no-warts-at-all biopic"

no warts, only farts

During production there was a COVID outbreak among the crew.

― Charlie Hair (C. Grisso/McCain)

stapp, however, insisted that he just "had a cold"

Surprised to discover Lesley-Ann Down is alive

Lifetime movie level casting. Was there no part for Tawny Kitaen?

Now this is a review, written by someone working on their PhD in History:

https://letterboxd.com/bucephalus424/film/reagan-2024/

Reagan 2024

Watched Sep 01, 2024

Mathias’s review published on Letterboxd:
Here's just a rundown of some of the elements in this movie that made me smile in bewilderment: a narrative framing device of Jon Voight being a retired KGB analyst telling the story of Reagan's life to an up and coming Russian politician who wants to make Russia great again, with flashbacks to a de-aged Voight hanging out with the Politburo; Robert Davi as Leonid Brezhnev; a 1970s Christian prayer prophecy of Reagan taking office; Oppenheimer strongly suggested to be a Communist agent; Dennis Quaid's face in a continuous rictus grin; an 80s montage of people protesting Reagan set to Phil Collins, which features the movie's only acknowledgement of AIDS; absolutely zero mention of Afghanistan; a gag of Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko dying in quick comedic succession set to the same funeral procession footage; a sequence praising American support for the Contras and a denial of Reagan's involvement in Iran-Contra; the film opening on John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt on Reagan; Reagan and Tip O'Neill broing out as Irishmen; and a mandated preview of a documentary about Lincoln being gay called "Lincoln: Lover of Men." Lots more insane stuff in here, the rare film that appeals to two generally opposed audiences - stoned history graduate students and hardcore Republicans in their 70s and 80s

Can't decide b/w two alien movies to watch today, including this one.

Surprised to discover Lesley-Ann Down is alive

And playing Margaret Thatcher wtf?

I kinda love that this is turning in this year's Cats.

I had forgotten who Lesley-Ann Down even is, and thought we were talking about Lesley Ann Warren.

I know her from the '80s miniseries North and South.

cast list for this is a real who’s-who of contemporary hollywood maga wingnuts

is Penelope Ann Miller MAGA or just un(der)employed?

penelope ann maga morelike

(i have no idea about her leanings either way tbh but quaid / sorbo / voight / davi is a helluva collection of brainworms)

Bringing together Scott Stapp and Pat Boone, the greatest talents of their generations, just amazing.

The Lesley-Ann Down that I remember from the late '70s...was not very Thatcheresque.

Having a guy who seemed to perpetually play drug kingpins play Brezhnev is inspired. Voted Davi

(xp) Well, they're always trying to make Thatcher more attractive a figure that she actually was. She was in fact, to coin a phrase, weird.

god, the things that show up in some people's wiki articles

In 1988 she starred in the made-for-television remake of the 1958 romantic comedy Indiscreet. The Los Angeles Times said: "The vapidity of both lead performances is magnified by come-hither camera shots that linger too long on their empty faces... Down has a little more flounce to the ounce, but the best she can do as a woman deceived is to fly into a deep snit. Production values evoke the silky-bland noblesse oblige that has been canonized for TV by "Dynasty" and "Knots Landing"."[32]

she was also in the infamous, deeply misogynist "out of the unknown" episode "to lay a ghost"

oh and she played unity mitford in a 1981 bbc2 teleplay

i'd love to see how the people behind _reagan_ would portray unity
presumably as a sweet, angelic young woman whose life was ruined by scurrilous liberals falsely suggesting she had some association with hitler

crazy to remember that randy quaid used to play reagan on snl. they should have picked him for this too. the wingier of the two wingnut brothers.

If that list is in billing order--I assume it is with Quaid at the top--I'm surprised Wyman/Suvari is second. I thought the film would just cover a window of his presidency. If not, where's Goldwater, Pat Brown, etc.?

did steven mnuchin produce this movie? or was it kirk cameron's production company.

more slowcore tears for fears. all you need is the trailer to this movie i'm pretty sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_vdTwQP1a8

As bad I expected it to be, but not in a way that opens up any room for something interesting to say--it's like an abridged Wikipedia page. I smiled twice: 1) "Hey, it's Duck Phillips!" (Herman "Duck" Phillips brightens up anything); 2) When the Berlin Wall falls and Reagan's chopping wood, "Sweet Child 'O Mine" starts up--that almost rises to the level of camp.

I hear that Lesley-Ann got the part because Meryl had a schedule conflict.

No mention of South Africa (unless I missed it--I drifted a bit), but there is an Act Up banner, way out of chronology.

This will probably be out of the theatres by then, but it's wild to consider that in a couple weeks Quaid will be back on screens in the A24 'Demi Moore takes youth serum and turns into Margret Qualley' Horror film The Substance.

I don't want to read too much about Dennis Quaid. I like him.

and The Substance got terrific Cannes review.

those reviews made The Substance sound gaudy, preposterous and sensationalistic, they didn't seem like they were good recommendations to me

You know this is ILX, right?

those reviews made The Substance sound gaudy, preposterous and sensationalistic

i.e. a must-see?

the guy who produced Reagan produced this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/No_Safe_Spaces_poster.jpg

his last movie was called Shooting Heroin.

Sherilyn Fenn as Hazel
Alan Powell as Adam
Garry Pastore as Officer Jerry
Nicholas Turturro as Reverend John
Cathy Moriarty as Beth
Lawrence Hilton Jacobs as Edward
Daniella Mason as Cheyenne
Rachel Hendrix as Brittany
Ola Ray as Helen
Brian O'Halloran as Logan

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Markbodyshot-_2009_59.jpg/1024px-Markbodyshot-_2009_59.jpg

Mark Joseph is also an award-winning record producer who has worked with artists like Lauryn Hill, P.O.D., Switchfoot, Lifehouse, Sixpence None The Richer, Scott Stapp of Creed, MxPx, Dr. John, ZZ Top, Blink 182, Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Andrae Crouch, and others and in 2004 produced the rock soundtrack for The Passion of the Christ.

To show how unpopular Reagan was becoming in early 1983, they use a (not very good) anti-Reagan song from 1986. Not sure if we're supposed to notice, or if we do, if we're supposed to care.

I don't want to read too much about Dennis Quaid. I like him.

Too late for me. Doesn't change how I feel about his performances in the films I like, but I'll probably stay away from his interviews from this point on.

did they use the Ronnie Darko tears for fears slo-mo cover song in the movie?

xp I still remember my surprise when I found out that there were serious doubts all through 1983 that Reagan would run for re-election, stretching from the damning results of the midterm election all the way to the following October, when there were still questions of whether he would officially announce his candidacy. (Not sure how many actually believed this, but there was also speculation he would not run and throw his weight behind his VP George Bush as his chosen successor.) Crazy how it went from that to the biggest electoral college landslide in history.

One line in a debate can do wonders. (I know--the economy turned around.)

More like castling decisions

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

https://i.imgur.com/xuEwmkx.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/Hs08J4h.jpeg

You know something? He did say 'well' a lot