Will Ferrell’s Upcoming Ronald Reagan Comedy Blasted By Former President’s Son


Will Ferrell’s upcoming comedy about a dementia-addled Ronald Reagan in his second term in the White House has garnered quite the response on social media since it was first announced. While some have felt Will Ferrell is the perfect choice for such a role, others, such as the former president’s son, have called the very idea of the film disrespectful to his father’s memory. The film not only stars Ferrell as the titular character but is also being produced by the comedian and centers around an intern who has to convince the politician he’s an actor playing the role of the United States president.

Will Ferrell Ronald Reagan
[Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

Ferrell’s new film might be aiming for belly laughs, but Michael Reagan took to Twitter to make sure everyone knew he thought the issue of his father suffering from dementia or Alzheimers was not funny.

It appears the politician’s son found out about the flick through his news feed, and he was quick to proclaim, “Alzheimers is not a comedy!”

That was far from the first time Michael Reagan took Ferrell to task for this role.

“What an Outrag….Alzheimers is not joke…It kills..You should be ashamed all of you”

The response comes a day after Will Ferrell’s newest project was announced. The Guardian reports the film has long been on the drawing board and has been billed as “hilarious political satire.”

Ferrell is certainly not new for drawing fire for his depiction of former U.S. Presidents. His most famous turn in that type of character up until now was when he performed a one-man show called You’re Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush. The difference in these two projects, of course, is, this time, Will Ferrell is taking on a much-loved former president. In his HBO show, he was taking on a president who had just left office to almost record low approval ratings.

The Telegraph reports this new Will Ferrell project, titled simply Reagan, was written by Mike Rosolio and was on the 2015 “Black List,” which is an industry round-up of the best unproduced spec scripts. With Will Ferrell agreeing to both star in and produce Reagan, the project is now getting underway. One has to wonder whether Ferrell might eventually regret his decision to sign on and helm Reagan considering the response its subject matter has already engendered.

Ferrell and the rest of the group tied to the film have said this isn’t supposed to be anything close to a biographical flick, but that likely isn’t going to get Michael Reagan and others who are outraged back down. Ferrell is drawing negative comments from a number of other people who don’t believe Alzheimers and dementia are diseases that should be made fun of in 2016. Other Twitter users have called out Will Ferrell for making a comedy centering on a disease that causes quite a bit of pain among family members of the sufferers.

“Thank you. The day my Mother looked me in the eye & said “who are you,” was the worst day oml.”

Others seem to just take offense to a film that Will Ferrell seems to be doing just to take some potshots at the hero worship that has centered around Ronald Reagan, especially since his death. Still the main anger, especially from the former president’s son, isn’t about making fun of Ronald Reagan. The anger is clearly centered around Will Ferrell seemingly being rather insensitive to a disease that ravages the brain just to get a couple of laughs.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/AP Images]

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