Will Ferrell is producing a comedy about Ronald Reagan, but the late President's children aren't laughing.
Michael Reagan and Patti Davis,
the son and daughter of President Reagan, are slamming the comedian's
latest project, calling it an "outrage." The script, titled Reagan,
reportedly centers on a White House intern who is tasked with
convincing the POTUS that is he an actor playing the president in a
movie when the latter falls into dementia during his second term.
Ferrell is attached to star as the titular president.
"What an [outrage]," the younger Reagan tweeted on
Wednesday. "Alzheimer’s is not a joke. It kills. You should be ashamed,
all of you."
He followed with another tweet that read, "Alzheimer’s is not a comedy!"
Meanwhile, Davis penned an open letter to Ferrell on her website.
"Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance
about Alzheimer's and other versions of dementia. Perhaps if you knew
more, you would not find the subject humorous," she wrote.
"Alzheimer's doesn't care if you are President of
the United States or a dockworker. It steals what is most precious to a
human being — memories, connections, the familiar landmarks of a
lifetime that we all come to rely on to hold our place secure in this
world and keep us linked to those we have come to know and love," she
continued. "I watched as fear invaded my father’s eyes — this man who
was never afraid of anything. I heard his voice tremble as he stood in
the living room and said, 'I don’t know where I am.' I watched
helplessly as he reached for memories, for words, that were suddenly out
of reach and moving farther away. For ten long years he drifted — past
the memories that marked his life, past all that was familiar…and
mercifully, finally past the fear.
"There was laughter in those years, but there was never humor."
ET has reached out to Ferrell's rep for comment.
On the heels of a successful acting career, Reagan
served as the commander in chief from 1981 to 1989. He died in his
Bel-Air, California, home on June 5, 2004, of pneumonia, complicated by
Alzheimer's Disease. He was 93.
Variety was first to report news
of the casting, noting that the film does not yet have a director and
will soon be shopped around to various Hollywood studios. The project
first gained attention when it was featured as a top script on The Black
List's catalogue, and recently received the live-read treatment from Lena Dunham and John Cho.
News of Ferrell's involvement comes less than two months after the death of Reagan's wife, Nancy Reagan. The former First Lady died from congestive heart failure on March 6 at her home in Bel-Air, California. She was 94.
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