By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Christian Bale said Wednesday he will play Dick Cheney in Adam McKay's upcoming biopic of the former vice president.
Bale was last week reported as being in talks to join the film that will reteam him with McKay following 2015's Oscar-nominated "The Big Short." The Oscar winner confirmed he has signed up to star in the untitled film in an interview with The Associated Press.
"In the same way as it was a journey of discovery with 'The Big Short,' Adam was able to take a story that most people would go comatose listening to," said Bale of the script penned by McKay. "His ability to make it startling and entertaining and intelligent without compromising anything – he's masterful at doing that."
The film is also to star Steve Carell (who also co-starred in "The Big Short") as the former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Amy Adams is set to play Lynne Cheney, the former vice president's wife.
Like "The Big Short," McKay's film, which he'll direct, is to be produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment. Shooting is planned to begin in September, with Paramount Pictures expected to distribute.
Bale was nominated for best supporting actor for his performance in "The Big Short." He previously won an Oscar for his leading performance in "The Fighter." He stars in the upcoming Armenian genocide drama "The Promise."
McKay and screenwriter Charles Randolph won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for "The Big Short."
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More