Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson (The People vs Larry Flynt, The Messenger) will be teaming up with Oscar nominated director Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men) on LBJ, with Harrelson set to play Lyndon Baines Johnson. The political drama is set up with Acacia Entertainment, Savvy Media Holdings, Castle Rock Entertainment, and Star Thrower Entertainment and was written by 2014 Black List winner Joey Hartstone. Reiner, Matthew George, Liz Glotzer, Michael R. Williams, Tim White, and Trevor White (the Whites developed the project) are producing.
“During the sixties, I was a hippy and Lyndon Johnson was my president,” said Reiner. “At the time LBJ was the target of most of my generation’s anti-Vietnam-War anger. But as time has passed and my understanding of political realities has grown; I’ve come to see LBJ in a very different light. He was a complex man; a combination of brilliant political instinct, raw strength, ambition, and deep insecurities. The strength and power of persuasion that he showed to his colleagues existed alongside of a soft, almost childlike quality that perhaps only Lady Bird got to see. His life’s path was nothing short of Shakespearean. From the poor hill country of West Texas to the corridors of power in Washington, he used his brilliant political acumen to pass the most groundbreaking civil rights legislation of the twentieth century. And had it not been for the Vietnam War, I believe he would have gone down as one of America’s greatest presidents.”
Filming will take place in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Dallas, and Washington DC beginning in September 2015.
The Plot:
The script centers around the political upheaval that Vice President Johnson faced when he was thrust into the presidency at the hands of an assassin’s bullet in November 1963. With political battles on both sides of the aisle, Johnson struggles to heal a nation and secure his presidency by passing Kennedy’s historic Civil Rights Act.
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