Familiar Faces Play Presidential Candidates in the First 'Game Change' Trailer

Wednesday, 21 December 2011 16:34 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

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Familiar Faces Play Presidential Candidates in the First 'Game Change' Trailer

It's a tricky thing to dramatize as recent and hugely public an event as the 2008 presidential election, and attempting to do could result in a bunch of overcooked impressions and unintentional goofiness. To avoid that fate, the makers of the upcoming HBO movie Game Change hired the very best actors to portray Arizona Senator John McCain and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and you can see both Ed Harris and Julianne Moore in action for the first time via a new teaser trailer.

It's got little snippets of four-time Oscar nominee Harris as McCain sprinkled throughout, building to a big reveal of fellow four-time Oscar nominee Moore as Palin, but the glue holding it all together is two-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson as McCain's campaign strategist and adviser Steve Schmidt.

The telemovie is based on the non-fiction bestseller Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. As the title suggests, the book covered both the Republican and Democratic campaigns more or less equally, but this version whittles it down to the McCain campaign.

Jay Roach, most known as the director of the Austin Powers films, as well as Meet the Parents, returns to the subject of presidential elections after his 2008 HBO film Recount, which dramatized the controversy in Florida following the 200 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Roach reunites with his Recount writer Danny Strong.

Ed Harris and Julianne Moore are clearly the big draws here, with Woody Harrelson playing a less flashy role alongside Ron Livingston, Sarah Paulson, and Peter MacNicol.

Game Change is set to air in March of 2012.