Variety is reporting that John Lithgow (The Crown) has signed on to portray the deceased former Fox News chief Roger Ailes in Jay Roach’s (Trumbo) new film Fair and Balanced.
The film will explore Ailes’ downfall after being hit with allegations of sexual misconduct and harrassment from a number of female employees at the network, including Fox News anchors Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly.
Roach is directing the film from a script by Charles Randolph (The Big Short), while the cast includes Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies) as Carlson, Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde) as Kelly, and Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) as a fictional Fox News associate producer.
Fair and Balanced isn’t the only Ailes project in development, with Russell Crowe set to play the Fox News founder in Showtime’s limited series The Loudest Voice in the room, although that will focus more on Ailes’ life as opposed to the whistle-blowers who brought him down.
Originally published August 27, 2018. Updated August 26, 2018.
