“Brokeback Mountain” producer and “The Ice Storm” writer James Schamus has committed to direct the fact-inspired “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”-esque coming of age story “College Republicans” with Logan Lerman (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) and Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education”) set to star.
The story unfolds in the Summer of 1973, as America witnesses the dirtiest election in its history – for the chairmanship of the national College Republicans club.
Butterfield plays a young Karl Rove who embarks with his untrustworthy campaign manager Lee Atwater (Lerman) on a backroom vote-stealing road trip through the South. In the process they form uneasy alliances with the likes of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Jeff Sessions.
However Atwater meets his match in a beautiful young Republican operative named Kate King (Kristine Froseth) and their dreams of victory bring them all too close to humiliating, career-ending defeat. The Kate King character is said to be a composite of several real people.
“Billions” writer/producer Wes Jones penned the script a decade ago with said script topping the Black List in 2010. The script is said to be meticulously researched and deals with the theme of how young opportunists took hold and transformed the Republican party into its modern incarnation.
Production will begin next spring or summer with financing and distribution currently being worked out. Schamus, Anthony Bregman, Franklin Leonard and Peter Cron are producing.
Source: Deadline
