Katie Crocker - Associate Editor
Per Deadline, Kevin Spacey and Michael Shannon have signed for “Elvis & Nixon”, with “House of Cards” star Spacey playing Nixon, and Shannon (“Man of Steel”) playing the King.
Liza Johnston is directing from a script penned by “Princess Bride” actor Cary Elwes with Hanala and Joey Sagal.
The film fixes on the memorable 1970 meeting between Elvis and the President that resulted in that legendary photo.
Eric Bana and Danny Huston were once attached to play the leads.
More about that meeting: On the morning of December 21, 1970, Presley showed up on the White House lawn asking to speak with the president at the height of his revived rock ‘n’ roll stardom. President Nixon received him in the Oval Office, where they discussed the patriotic Presley’s views on drug use and hippies (he didn’t care for either, though he would develop an addiction to barbiturates), and the King asked to be sworn in as an undercover federal agent, leaving behind a gifted Colt .45 for the president. Less than four years after their powwow, Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal; three years after that, Presley was dead at 42.
The movie is slated for an early 2015 start.
