Julianne Moore to play Sarah Palin? You betcha!

America’s most polarizing “hockey mom” gets the Hollywood treatment in new HBO movie

How interesting that a well known liberal actress, who has portrayed both a porn star and the head of a lesbian household, will be portraying Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and possible Republican nominee for President. Yes, Julianne Moore, whose roles in Boogie Nights, The Kids are Alright, and as the intellectual bohemian “Maude” in The Big Lebowski, strike as a complete 180 to the conservative mother of five interestingly named children, and the matron saint of the recent Tea Party movement.

But that was the news coming from HBO Films on Wednesday, as they announced that Moore was attached to Game Change, the new film adaptation of the tell-all book that tackled the 2008 election. Authored by Time‘s Mark Halperin and New York Magazine‘s John Heilemann, the book dished the dirt on the shaky initial relationship between the Obamas and the Clintons, the seeming non-existent relationship between Obama and running mate Joe Biden, and of course the infamous choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s Vice President. The film, which will be written by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, will follow McCain’s campaign, VP pick and ultimate defeat, but it should prominently feature all the major players, thus leading to more interesting news regarding casting decisions in the future.

And speaking of which, yes, Julianne Moore is a wild pick  when it comes to the buttoned-down, glasses wearing Palin, but aside from personality and her previous roles, the famously red-headed Moore doesn’t really look anything like Sarah Palin. A much better choice would have been Tina Fey, whose spot-on parody was the highlight of the 2008 election season. However, this seems to be a more serious take on the election, with Roach and Strong authoring the film, which should play much like their 2008 outing Recount, which chronicled the mess that was 2000’s Bush vs. Gore election. But then again, lets not forget that Roach was responsible for the ‘Austin Powers’ and ‘Meet the Parents’ franchises, so let’s not rule out the comedy that could easily be mined from this project. It just might be a bit more high brow than simple dick jokes.