It has been about six months since we last updated our casting for the faux flick “Election 2012: The Movie,” where we pick which actors could best play the key roles for next year’s White House race.
Since our posting in May, we’ve had to drop Edward Norton as Tim Pawlenty when the former Minnesota governor bowed out of the still-nascent race. (With no clear favorite in the contest and less than two months before the Iowa Caucus, we do wonder if Pawlenty regrets jumping ship so early.)
We also rue the lost chance for Spanish actress Penelope Cruz to try out an Alaskan accent after Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate, decided that being president might be “too shackle-y.”
Since Texas Gov. Rick Perry dove into the race this summer, we’ve been struggling with which actor to cast in his role. Our first impulse was to go with Josh Brolin, who’s portrayal of a young George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s “W.” seemed an easy fit for Perry.
Instead, after watching Perry’s eye-catching New Hampshire speech, we found an actor that we think can pull off Perry’s balance of bravado and impishness. That actor is fellow Texan Dennis Quaid (who, like Brolin, played George W. Bush — or at least a thinly veiled satire of him — in the 2006 comedy, “American Dreamz.”)
We also finally settled on our pick to play former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum — Will Arnett, currently on the NBC sitcom “Up All Night.”
With that, we may have the final cast for the fake film set. (Although, we’re still on the look out for the right actor to play quixotic presidential candidate Buddy Roemer.)
So, here are our picks for “Election 2012: The Movie” (and, as always, please excuse the horrendous Photoshopping):
“Election 2012: The Movie”
Cast:
Will Smith (“Six Degrees of Separation”) as President Barack Obama
D.W. Moffett (“Friday Night Lights”) as former Gov. Mitt Romney
Dennis Quaid (“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”) as Texas Gov. Rick Perry
Danny Huston (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) as former Gov. Jon Huntsman
Patricia Heaton (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) as Rep. Michele Bachmann
John Amos (“The West Wing”) as Herman Cain
Ian McKellen (“The Lord of the Rings”) as Rep. Ron Paul
Will Arnett (“Arrested Development”) as former Sen. Rick Santorum
Jack Black (“School of Rock”) as former Speaker Newt Gingrich
So which actors do you think would best play the presidential pack? Email us or leave a comment below.
