The President is Missing is officially headed to Showtime!

Via Deadline..

 

Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Anthony Peckham (Invictus) have boarded The President Is Missing, the drama series adaptation of the novel by President Bill Clinton and James Patterson. McQuarrie will executive produce the project, currently in development, with Heather McQuarrie and the book’s authors. Peckham will also executive produce and write the adaptation.

 

In The President is Missing, a powerless and politically aimless Vice President unexpectedly becomes President halfway into his administration’s first term, despite his every wish to the contrary. He walks right into a secret, world-threatening crisis, both inside and outside the White House. Attacked by both friends and enemies alike, with scandal and conspiracy swirling around him, he is confronted with a terrible choice: keep his head down, toe the party line and survive, or act on his stubborn, late-developing conscience and take a stand.

 

Showtime acquired the rights to the book, published by Alfred A. Knopf and Little, Brown & Co., in fall 2017 in a very competitive situation and the project has since been in development.

“Christopher McQuarrie is a master of complex and compelling filmmaking. We feel so lucky to have ensnared him along with the supremely talented Tony Peckham to adapt The President Is Missing,” said Gary Levine, President of Entertainment, Showtime Networks. “They are both extremely enthusiastic about bringing this uniquely authentic political thriller to life on Showtime.”

The President Is Missing is executive produced by Christopher McQuarrie and Heather McQuarrie and co-executive produced by Jillian Share for Invisible Ink Productions. Anthony Peckham, Bill Clinton, James Patterson, Bill Robinson and Leopoldo Gout will also executive produce.

McQuarrie won an Oscar, BAFTA and Film Independent Spirit award for his screenplay for The Usual Suspects before it was named as one of the 101 greatest screenplays of all time by the WGA. His other writing credits include Valkyrie and Edge of Tomorrow. In addition to writing and directing Jack Reacher, McQuarrie directed Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the latter of which is the highest grossing franchise installment to date. He is set to begin directing the latest two Mission installments later this year.

Peckham was honored with the WGA’s Paul Selvin Award, recognizing written work which embodies the spirit of constitutional rights and civil liberties, for Invictus. His other screenplay credits include Sherlock Holmes and Don’t Say a Word.