Given how well the play has been received, it comes as no surprise to learn that the rights to Peter Morgan’s current West End hit Frost/Nixon are being eagerly eyed by Hollywood types.
And though the news comes from gossipy celeb-bothering site TMZ.com, it certainly sounds like Ron Howard is close to adding to the cinematic canon of films featuring “tricky Dicky” Nixon.
The stage version follows the legendary 1977 interviews between President Richard Nixon and our own David “Hello, good evening and welcome” Frost. The plot sees Frost gambling on getting the President, haggling over Nixon’s fee and taking a big risk when he couldn’t initially raise the cash from elsewhere. The rest is telly history, and the Nixon interviews became some of the most famous chunks of ’70s viewing.
Howard already has at least one project bubbling away in his development kitchen – J Michael Straczynski’s script The Changeling. But he may choose to tackle Frost/Nixon next. If he does, he surely can’t go wrong with the play’s central casting – Frank Langella as Nixon and The Queen’s Michael Sheen as Frost…