Story will focus on the 1970 impromptu meeting between the 2

Nov 7, 2014 15:04 GMT  ·  By

Amazing and totally surprising news today in film: Michael Shannon has been cast as the King of Pop Elvis Presley and Kevin Spacey will play US President Richard Nixon in a film based on the impromptu 1970 meeting between the two, which resulted in the photo attached to this post.

The film will be called simply “Elvis & Nixon” and will be directed by Liza Johnson off a script by Hanala Sagal, Joey Sagal and Cary Elwes. A brief synopsis for it has been released, Slash Film informs, but no estimated date for when it might open in theaters.

“Two men at the height of their powers, conscious they could not stay on top forever, both ripped with fear of the inevitable, sharing one famous private moment in the Oval office. ELVIS & NIXON recounts the morning of December 21st 1970,” the synopsis reads.

The circumstances around this unlikely meeting are well known and have been documented on film before, albeit in a comedy.

Elvis had stormed out of his house after his father and wife scolded him for spending a fortune on Christmas presents, which included dozens of guns and an entire fleet of Bentleys, and flew to get a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Guns.

As Priscilla Presley would later recall, he naively assumed that such a badge meant he could travel the world carrying as much firepower and drugs as he liked.

Nixon responded to his letter and asked him over to hand him his badge. The two found a lot in common when discussing drugs and the negative influence of The Beatles over American youth, and Elvis is said to have even tried to get Nixon to make him an FBI agent.

So now that we have the context to this meeting, we can all sit back, and until the movie comes out (or at least a trailer), fantasize about how amazing Shannon and Spacey will be in the roles of these real-life iconic figures. Both can do pretty much anything, so they will probably be astounding.