When Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned in 2016 after allegations of sexual misconduct by numerous employees, it sent a shockwave throughout the TV news business. It also probably sent a cold chill throughout Fox News which has been engulfed by scandals involving its host. Ailes’ humiliating fall from grace is about to get the big screen treatment in a new film, and it will have Charlize Theron as his most high-profile target, TV host Megyn Kelly.
Theron will star in the untitled film from Game Change director Jay Roach, based on a script by Charles Randolph, one of the Oscar-winning writers of The Big Short. The women who worked at Fox News during Ailes’ tenure will be the focus of the story, so expect depictions of Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, Greta van Susteren, and more. Bill O’Reilly, who was also exposed for his misconduct, will be a character in the film as well as media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Ailes, who died in 2017, was just the tip of the iceberg for Fox. The top-rated “news” network has shelled out millions in legal fees fighting allegations long after his resignation. Kelly rose through the ranks there, eventually becoming host of the popular show, The Kelly File. She and other women were reportedly pressured to come out on support of Ailes but she refused. She would eventually leave and join NBC as part of The Today Show.
This makes for the second overtly political project being backed and produced by Annapurna Pictures. They are also working on a Dick Cheney biopic from Adam McKay. [THR]
