Jennifer Jason Leigh has signed on to play Lady Bird Johnson in Rob Reiner’s upcoming presidential biopic LBJ, EW has confirmed with Leigh’s rep.
Woody Harrelson will star as Lyndon Baines Johnson, and the film will portray the 36th president’s life from his humble beginnings in Texas all the way to Washington, focusing on his chaotic “accidental” presidency following the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Deadline was first to report Leigh’s casting. The film’s cast also includes Bill Pullman as Ralph Yarborough, Kim Allen as Jackie Kennedy, Michael Stahl-David as Bobby Kennedy, and Richard Jenkins as Richard Russell. Joey Hartstone wrote the script, and LBJ is set to begin filming in September in New Orleans, Dallas, and Washington, DC.
There is currently another Johnson biopic in the works, an adaptation of the play All The Way, directed by Jay Roach for HBO and starring Bryan Cranston and Melissa Leo as the president and first lady.
Leigh will appear next in Quentin Tarantino’s long-awaited The Hateful Eight and Charlie Kaufman’s animated Anomalisa, which took home the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival last week.
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