A hat-tip goes to our comrades at The Playlist for sniffing this one out, which was buried within a Variety piece on 10 British talents to watch – a list I skimmed a few days but didn’t bother to look any closer at, given that there are no black talents on it (save for Gugu Mbatha-Raw; but she’s been in our sights for a few years now, so I won’t necessarily consider her that fresh of a face).
But number 4 within the 10-page pictorial is a profile of screenwriter Ed Whitworth, which contains a mention that he’s penned a screenplay centered around Colin Powell’s “Iraq war problem,” as I call it.
The profile gives very little further information on the project, other than that Forest Whitaker is attached to star in the film (as Powell of course) as well as produce.
Yes, you read that correctly! Forest Whitaker as Colin Powell. He’s already played Idi Amin, Eugene Allen (The Butler), and is attached to play Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a project by Roland Joffe, titled The Archbishop And The Antichrist. So why not Colin Powell, I suppose?
According to the Variety profile of Whitworth, Powell, as the project is currently titled…
… tells the behind-the-scenes story of how the then-Secretary of State addressed the U.N. and made the case for war in Iraq.
Whitworth calls it…
… a tragic story in which his protagonist “ended up doing this thing that he now seemingly regrets and was clearly a huge mistake.”
I did some further research (courtesy of Google search) which, funny enough, brought me back to Shadow & Act, to a December 2011 post in which we’d actually mentioned Powell and Whitworth, when the project made the 2011 Black list. Although, at the time, we were’t aware of any involvement by Whitaker’ so this might be a recent attachment.
Colin Powell at the center of a feature film narrative is definitely intriguing to me, especially the particular period during which the film will take place, described in the synopsis, and his involvement. You’ll recall that throughout the early 2000s, the Bush Administration worked to build a case for invading Iraq, culminating in then Secretary of State Powell’s February 2003 address to the United Nations Security Council; the image of Powell holding a model vial of anthrax, while giving his presentation to the United Nations Security Council, is memorable.
So, it’s not a typical Powell biopic, and instead focuses on this brief, momentous period in his life.
It actually sounds like a project for Paul Greengrass to handle. Whenever I think of political drama, and intrigue, set within a very specific period of time, with tense situations, his name almost always is one of the first that comes to mind. I can already see his energetic handheld camera work, grainy, blue-tinted images, a few jump-cuts, sound elements, etc.
I just can’t immediately picture Forest Whitaker as Colin Powell, as much of a fan of the actor as I am.
Who else is there, however? There aren’t exactly many black male actors of his generation to choose from, who could play the part.
Powell is 76 years old this year, meaning, he would have been roughly 10 years younger during the period in which the story takes place. So how many 60-something or 50-something year old black male actors (who could be easily and convincingly aged with make-up) do you know who could play Colin Powell?
I would’ve instead gone with an unknown, and then cast stars around him to help sell the film.
No matter now, however, as it’s apparently Whitaker’s, as long as he doesn’t change his mind, or something happens that changes his mind for him.
