Bill Murray to Play Franklin Roosevelt?

I will see any movie with Bill Murray in it, regardless of what it is about (the Garfield films are exceptions — I can get away with it because technically Murray isn’t in them, right?).  Murray has established himself as an incredibly gifted dramatic actor in films like Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and Get Low although there seems to always have to be some (however small) element of comedy in them to get ,the notoriously difficult to cast, Murray to commit to them.  But that might change — there are conflicting reports that Murray will play President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson from Focus Features.  New York Magazine insists that its a done deal, although Deadline claims it is not yet confirmed.

Either way, the film is about a June 1939 weekend at Roosevelt’s upstate New York cottage in which Roosevelt entertained the King and Queen of England.  Of course, that doesn’t sound all that exciting — even though British royalty is SO in right now, you know, with The King’s Speech and all — so here comes the drama: it also features FDR’s love affair with Margaret ‘Daisy’ Suckley… his distant cousin.  Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, especially since FDR’s wife, Elanor, was also a distant cousin (she didn’t even have to change her maiden name).  Those crazy Roosevelts!  While the affair was never exactly confirmed, letters between the two suggests that they were intimate.  The relationship was the basis for the play by Richard Nelson, who adapted his own play for the  film’s script.  The film will be directed by Roger Michell (Morning Glory).

I’m a Murray fan, so I’d love to see him do this — much more than I’d like to see him in Ghostbusters 3.  Call me crazy, but I’d like to see him stretch his talents than do what will inevitably be an Indiana Jones 4 — an older legend who can still go “passing the torch” to an actor we don’t care much about.  I’d rather see Murray try to nail FDR’s aristocratic accent than give up his proton pack to Seth Rogan or (shudder) Jonah Hill.

But that’s just my view — what’s yours?  Give us your thoughts about whether or not Murray is presidential material in the comments below!