It might seem like a strange casting choice, but there’s word Rob Reiner wants to cast Woody Harrelson in a film he’s long wanted to make about President Lyndon Johnson — with Harrelson playing LBJ.
According to Roger Friedman’s Showbiz411 website, for nearly two decades Reiner has been thinking about a film adaptation of acclaimed biographer Robert Caro’s award-winning “Means of Ascent” LBJ book.
Over the years, Reiner has considered Tim Robbins or Billy Bob Thornton to play Johnson, but now thinks the highly talented and creative Harrelson can tackle the job.
It’s interesting that President Johnson has intrigued Hollywood quite a bit lately. HBO is about to begin filming an adaptation of “All the Way,” the critically lauded Broadway play about LBJ, starring Bryan Cranston. In addition, Tom Wilkinson’s portrayal of Johnson in “Selma” was bashed for making LBJ something of an opponent to Martin Luther King Jr.’s approach to the civil rights movement.