In the most anticipated re-teaming of disaster-tainted icons since Kris Kristofferson met Michael Cimino for a steak dinner at Dan Tana’s (and washed dishes ’til 4 AM to settle the check), Kevin Costner has persuaded his clinically insane Waterworld co-star, Dennis Hopper, to play the Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the forthcoming indie comedy Swing Vote (which has thus far not been identified as an outright remake of The Great Man Votes, but I trust Lou Lumenick to keep the pressure on). Also joining the survivors of the temperamental atolls are Kelsey Grammar, Stanley Tucci, Nathan Lane and George Lopez, who will play the deceased labor leader Cesar Chavez.
According to Variety, Swing Vote depicts "an apathetic working-class single dad who’s thrust on the world stage when the presidential election comes down to his vote." This is a serviceable premise for a movie (obviously, as it’s been made once before), but it’s also dated and fabulously unrealistic. What director Joshua Michael Stern and co-writer Jason Richman need to do is transplant their story to a poor, predominantly African-American district in Florida and turn it into a madcap comedy in which Republican operatives do everything in their power to disenfranchise a registered-to-vote black single father. It would be like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, but with a voting booth standing in for "The Big W".
Filming on Swing Vote is set to begin on July 23rd. This is the first picture to be produced under Costner’s indie "Treehouse Films" company. Feel the excitement.