FRANK LANGELLA - STUDIO BOSSES WANTED BEATTY TO PLAY NIXON

STUDIO BOSSES WANTED BEATTY TO PLAY NIXON

FRANK LANGELLA had to fight to play ex-U.S. president RICHARD NIXON in new movie FROST/NIXON - because studio bosses wanted to give the role to screen legend WARREN BEATTY.
Langella had played the role onstage in London and New York; but when producers Ron Howard and Bryan Grazer came to take the true story - about disgraced Nixon's TV encounter with British interviewer David Frost - to the big screen, they had difficulty convincing executives Langella should keep the role.
Studio bosses preferred Beatty and suggested he be cast as the disgraced Nixon.
Howard admits, "I knew Michael Sheen would be great as Frost, and the studio was happy with that.
"But there was this conversation about the Nixon character."
He confirms rumours linking Beatty with the part, adding "They were very interested in that possibility."