Variety reports HBO has secured the rights to “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime,” an in-the-works Harper Collins book by political writers Mark Halperin (editor-at-large at Time magazine) and John Heilemann (national political correspondent for New York magazine) with hopes of turning it into a film for the pay cable station. This marks the second political feature HBO has picked up in the last month following the March news that screenwriter Peter Morgan was planning to direct his script “The Special Relationship,” setting Dennis Quaid to play Bill Clinton, Julianne Moore to play Hillary Clinton, Michael Sheen to play British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Helen McCrory to play Cherie Blair in a drama about the sometimes-turbulent relationship between the leaders of the two superpowers when they first took office.
The Halperin and Heilemann book is said to focus more on the characters than the pollsters and campaign teams from the 2008 election. Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond) has been brought in to adapt the book, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the 2008 presidential election from the perspective of the candidates and their respective camps. Heilemann knew Barack Obama from their Harvard days, Halperin had become acquainted with Sarah Palin, and they both knew Joe Biden, McCain and the Clintons.
Halperin is quoted in Variety saying, “Focusing on those characters went to the essence of why this was the campaign of a lifetime, not just for the candidates, but for the country.”
Leavitt most recently adapted the Nathaniel Philbrick book “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,” which Edward Zwick rewrote with Marshall Herskovitz and will direct for New Regency. The writer drew comparisons to a couple of recent films you may recognize saying, “It’s funny to call Obama and Hillary characters, but that’s how I have to look at them,” Leavitt said. “To me, the primary was one of the greatest title fights of the century, and John and Mark have a treasure chest of anecdotes and inside stories. I think it will present itself almost like a stage play, like Frost/Nixon or The Queen.”
