Bill Murray to play FDR?

There aren't many actors who are an instant draw for me, but Bill Murray is almost always one of them. Now that, late it life, he's finally gotten the respect he's long deserved, it's interesting to see the kind of projects he takes on. I, for one, never would have expected him to play Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which Vulture reported today.

Even more bizarrely, the film, an adaptation of the British radio play "Hyde Park on the Hudson" will focus on the quasi-incestuous relationship between FDR and his distant cousin, Daisy, which just so happened to coincide with the weekend the British King and Queen visited him in his upstate New York cottage, marking the first time a member of the British royalty visited America. I smell hijinks!

The film was adapted by Richard Nelson from his own play, and will be directed by Roger Mitchell ("Morning Glory," "Notting Hill"). I am loving everything about this - presidents as enshrined as FDR are rarely shown to be anything less that slightly flawed, but noble leaders, and just to make a film about FDR's morally trickier side is tremendous. That it also seems to be a comedic take on the whole proceedings has me giddy all over.

And, as previously mentioned, Bill Murray? Can't do much better than that. Deadline is quick to mention, however, that Murray's involvement isn't totally a done deal - the actor is notoriously difficult to nail down, and Focus Features doesn't want to jinx their whole project from the get-go (the film's production, right now, hinges on him accepting the role).