By BROOKS BARNES
April 5, 2017
LOS ANGELES — The Dark Knight himself, Christian Bale, is in talks to play the lead in a Dick Cheney biopic that Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment hope to begin shooting in September.
Mr. Bale, 43, is a three-time Oscar nominee and a one-time winner (for his crack-addled boxer in “The Fighter”), but he is best known for playing Batman in Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. Also in talks for the still-untitled film about Mr. Cheney, the former vice president, are Steve Carell, who would play Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, and Amy Adams, who would play Mr. Cheney’s wife, Lynne.
The talks, reported on Wednesday by Variety and other Hollywood trade news outlets, were confirmed by a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because contracts had not been completed. Adam McKay, a two-time Academy Award nominee who won as a writer for “The Big Short,” about the mid-2000s housing bubble, will direct the film about Mr. Cheney from a script he wrote.
It is impossible to say whether Mr. McKay’s biopic will ultimately come together with this cast, but Plan B has an enviable track record for bringing prestigious films over the finish line. Co-founded by Brad Pitt, who will serve as a producer on the Cheney film, Plan B has been behind such Oscar winners as “Moonlight” and “12 Years a Slave.”