The last time we heard a peep from Warren Beatty as a director it was back in 1998 for the underrated political satire Bulworth, which starred himself and Halle Berry. (Truthfully, this should be required viewing for all of Congress and anyone running for political office – President included.)
Now it looks like Beatty is making a comeback of sorts. While he may have not have acted in anything since 2001’s abysmal Town & Country, the 74-year-old actor/director is planning to do another project on Howard Hughes, which will star him as the billionaire magnate/aviator. Though it will not be a biopic like Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. Instead, “part of the plot involves an affair he had with a younger woman in the later years of his life.” (Interesting factoid: Howard Hughes was 70 years old at the time of the death, so Beatty, in essence, will be playing a young character.)
Apparently, this project has been in the works, to some degree, since the ’80s when Ishtar screenwriter Elaine May wrote a draft.
Deadline is reporting that Warren Beatty is looking to get a number of A-listers in his comeback project, including Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin (who played Pan Am’s Juan Trippe in The Aviator), Andrew Garfield, Annette Bening, Shia La Beouf, Evan Rachel Wood and Rooney Mara.
How exactly would someone like Shia La Beouf and Andrew Garfield factor into the story, well Showbiz 411 says we could see younger actors play Hughes in flashbacks.
Beatty isn’t the only one trying to mount his own Hughes film as Christopher Nolan wants to make a Hughes film once he finishes The Dark Knight Rises.
Howard Hughes has been a popular cinematic figure over the years, in addition to Scorsese’s Aviator, you have the Richard Gere-starring The Hoax, where he makes up an autobiography on the recluse billionaire, and Jason Robards played him in Jonathan Demme’s 1980 release Melvin and Howard. Not bad for a guy who flew the Spruce Goose, collected his toe-nail clippings, and produced such films as Scarface (1932) and The Outlaw (1943).
