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Sometimes a Tweet Is So Great, It Just Has to Be an Actual Movie

Fake America Great Again
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Vivian Kane
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Published: Sep 7, 2018 04:00 pm

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Earlier this week, Armando Iannucci tweeted out a seemingly (at least maybe half) joking idea for a movie pitch.

“Trump drugged and moved to a replica Whitehouse,” it reads, “where he carries on thinking he’s governing. Millions spent on hiring actors to play his staff, Senators, news anchors, people at rallies.” It sounds like a sort of reverse-Dave meets Wag the Dog meets The Truman Show.

This is the kind of movie that already sounds great just by its premise but that Iannuci–the man behind scathingly dark political comedies like Veep, In the Loop, and The Death of Stalin–would turn into absolutely genius satire.

And, of course, there’s the fact that that premise is our collective wish fulfillment. Just take the orange man, drop him in a soundstage where he can rant and press the big red button as much as he wants, and let the grownups get back to work.

As it turns out, that tweet-pitch was enough to garner a whole lot of interest from the people who could actually make this happen.

According to Deadline, eight–eight!–studios have expressed interest in the idea, including at least one “big offer.” Who knows if Iannucci (who is currently working on a space comedy pilot for HBO) will actually move ahead with this idea, but he’s tweet-pitching some details, including a title:

And a star:

Let’s also note that this isn’t the only brilliant idea Iannucci’s pitched to Twitter this week.

This is the Important Twitter Content we all deserve.

As for Fake America Great Again (great title), Iannucci says he’s “mulling everything” but wants to remind everyone that while satire is important and effective, it’s not as effective as voting.

(image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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Image of Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.
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