After working together on last year’s The Judge, which scored Robert Duvall an Oscar nomination, Team Downey’s Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey are reuniting with screenwriter Bill Dubuque to develop a currently untitled dramedy set in the high-stakes environment of televised presidential debates.
The pic will take place during three presidential debates, where (as per Variety) “millions of dollars and months of campaigning come down to 270 minutes of highly scrutinized political theatre.” Dubuque is scribing, while the Downeys and Michael Gambino will produce for Team Downey alongside Mark Williams.
No actors or director are yet attached, though it’s not hard to imagine Downey Jr. taking on the role of a hungry political operator, either in front of the cameras as a candidate or behind it as a figure pulling the strings. Team Downey and Dubuque jointly hatched the idea, so they’ll likely be intimately involved in forming the characterization of the main players, which might mean Downey Jr. will find it hard to turn down the opportunity to step in front of the camera.
Team Downey has been on a tear of late. Recently, the shingle announced that Paul Thomas Anderson had been tapped to write (and possibly direct) its long-in-the-works Pinocchio adaptation, setting up a competition with Disney. As for Dubuque, The Accountant, a thriller he wrote for Ben Affleck to star in, just wrapped production.