John Lithgow to Play Roger Ailes in Fox News Movie

Annapurna’s Fox News movie has found its Roger Ailes.

John Lithgow will play the late disgraced media mogul in the upcoming feature that centers on the women who took on the famed toxic male culture of the news network. He joins Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, who will play Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson and an associate producer, respectively.

Annapurna is financing and producing the project, which was written by The Big Short scribe Charles Randolph and will be directed by Jay Roach. Theron will produce the feature along with Beth Kono and AJ Dix via their Denver & Delilah banner. Roach, Randolph and Margaret Riley are also producing.

Ailes ran Fox News and helped launch the careers of Kelly, Carlson and Sean Hannity with his powerful channel. He also was a prominent figure in Republican circles who helped elect presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Ailes was forced to resign in 2016 when a host of accusations of sexual misconduct surfaced, with Carlson’s and Kelly’s the most high-profile, and which contributed to his exit from the network. He died in 2017.

The still-untitled project is described as an ensemble pic, with other likely characters to include former anchor Greta Van Susteren, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and fired host Bill O’Reilly. 

Lithgow, who is repped by UTA and Hansen Jacobson, recently received praise for his stint as Winston Churchill on Netflix’s The Crown. He is set to co-star in Paramount’s adaptation of Stephen King’s best-seller Pet Sematary.

Variety first reported the news.

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