FROST/NIXON's Morgan to Complete 'Blair Trilogy' with Directing Debut on 'THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP'

Variety is reporting that "Frost/Nixon" playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan is set to make his directorial debut on a film that would be the third movie in the Tony Blair trilogy launched in 2003 by Stephen Frears' British TV movie "The Deal" and followed by "The Queen."

"Deal" tracked the rise of Tony Blair, played by Michael Sheen. Frears and Sheen then reteamed for "The Queen," which also starred Helen Mirren in her Oscar-winning turn. Morgan earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay on the picture as well reports Variety.

The new motion picture, tentatively titled "The Special Relationship," will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and will again star "Frost/Nixon" star Michael Sheen as Tony Blair.

Morgan initially planned to focus the pic on George W. Bush as well as Bill Clinton, but decided to narrow its scope to the intimate relationship between Blair and Clinton between 1997 and 2000. The writer researched the picture in Washington, D.C., and Little Rock, Ark., last summer.

One potential home for the trilogy's final chapter could be DreamWorks, where Kennedy set up Morgan's script "Hereafter" for Clint Eastwood to direct confirms the trade publication.

Peter Morgan also wrote Tom Hooper's upcoming "The Damned United," which also stars Sheen as legendary English soccer coach Brian Clough; Universal-Working Title's remake of the Brit miniseries "State of Play," starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck; and an upcoming adaptation of John le Carre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" for Working Title.

Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan's (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon. Reprising their roles from Morgan's stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York. The film opens in selected cities 12/5 and 12/12 with a nationwide release on Christmas Day. Broadway Beat brings you from the stages of Broadway to the the silver screens of Hollywood with the behind the scenes story of Frost/Nixon.

Frost/Nixon not only re-creates the on-air interview, but the weeks of around-the-world, behind-the-scenes maneuvering between the two men and their camps as negotiations were struck, deals were made and secrets revealed...all leading to the moment when they would sit facing one another in the court of public opinion.

Frost/Nixon is a collaboration between Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Films, with Academy Award® winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard joining Tim Bevan andEric Fellner as producers. Joining Langella and Sheen as the colorful real-life personalities who provide the men counsel is a formidable roster of actors includingKevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones and Matthew Macfadyen.

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.