Halle Berry has signed on to play the President of the United States in a gender-flipped adaptation of The President Is Missing, the thriller novel by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. The 59-year-old actress will also produce the movie, alongside the authors.
In the film, President Joanna Duncan (Berry) faces a terrorist threat so deadly it could plunge the US into the dark ages, and to stop it, she must first outwit her own Secret Service and escape from the White House.
Halle obtained the rights to the book via her production company HalleHolly, which she runs in partnership with Holly Jeter. The movie production will be in development with Apple Original Films.
Berry’s casting as a US President comes after she waded into politics last month, when she issued a strong rebuke to California Governor Gavin Newsom just moments before he took to the stage at a star-studded event.
The X-Men star accused the Democrat of “devaluing” women after he vetoed a menopause bill that she had championed tirelessly, arguing that his stance makes him unqualified to be the next US President as he considers entering the race for the White House in 2028.
Speaking at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit, she said, “Back in my great state of California, my very own governor, Gavin Newsom, has vetoed our menopause bill, not one but two years in a row. But that’s okay, because he’s not going to be the governor forever, and the way he has overlooked women, half the population, by devaluing us, he probably should not be our next president either.”
Halle has been dating singer Van Hunt for the past six years, but revealed last year that she turned down his marriage proposal. The former Bond Girl, who has previously been married to former baseball star David Justice, musician Eric Benet and actor Olivier Martinez, told Today.com, “Well, I’ve been married three times. Van has been married once, and so no, we don’t feel like we have to get married to validate our love in any way. We don’t.”