Four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore has inked a deal to play politico Sarah Palin in the HBO telefilm “Game Change.” This hot property is based on the 2009 beststeller of the same name by Time reporter Mark Halperin and New York scribe John Heilemann. Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents”) is both producing and directing the project for the paycaster.
Three years ago, Roach told the tale of the 2000 election in the wry “Recount” for HBO. That telefilm won three of its 11 Emmy bids, including two for Roach as director and producer of the top TV movie of the year. Five of the performers in “Recount” reaped Emmy bids as well: leads Kevin Spacey and Tom Wilkinson and supporting players Bob Balaban, Laura Dern and Denis Leary. And actor Danny Strong (“Mad Men”), who earned an Emmy nod for what was his first script, is handling the adaptation this time around as well.
Julianne Moore, who got her start on the daytime drama “As the World Turns” in the mid-1980s, had done no TV for two decades until she played one of the many love interests of Alec Baldwin‘s character on “30 Rock” last year. This will be her first TV movie since “Cast a Deadly Spell” in 1991, which was also for HBO.
