Will Ferrell will star as Ronald Reagan in a comedy about the US president’s lapse into dementia during his second term in 1985, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Reagan will be based on a screenplay by Mike Rosolio, which made the 2015 Black List of the most popular unfilmed scripts in Hollywood. Publicity for a live read-through last month in Los Angeles described the screenplay as a “hilarious political satire” about an ambitious intern tasked with convincing the dementia-stricken commander in chief that he is an actor playing the president in a movie.



Ferrell, who has appeared as George W Bush in various comedy sketches on stage and TV, will produce as well as taking the title role. The project does not yet have a director or financing.

In the live read-through on 5 March at the Montalban theatre in Hollywood, James Brolin starred as Reagan, with John Cho as the intern. Lena Dunham’s casting for the reading as Reagan’s one-time speech writer Peggy Noonan drew criticism from some conservative US websites earlier this year.

Will Ferrell as former US president George W Bush in a Saturday Night Live skit

Ferrell, 48, recently signed up to play an Uber driver stuck with a deranged escaped-convict passenger in a new comedy to be produced by The Big Short’s Adam McKay. He was last seen on the big screen in Zoolander 2, as the eccentric fashion mogul Mugatu.



This article originally stated that Reagan’s second term in office began in 1984. This has been corrected to 1985. The US presidential election was won by Reagan in November 1984, but he was not sworn into office for his second term until January 1985.