Kevin Spacey Set To Play Winston Churchill

Kevin Spacey as politician Francis Underwood in ‘House of Cards’

Kevin Spacey seems to be playing the role of politician regularly in his career these days.

Having played politician Francis Underwood in Netflix’s House of Cards, it seems that Kevin Spacey is due to take on a more challenging political role – that of Winston Churchill.

Captain of the Gate is set to portray Winston Churchill’s rise to power before the Second World War, and his actions to defend Britain from the threat of rising powers in Nazi Germany.

The film will also cover Churchill’s life when he was Prime Minister from 1940 until 1945 and again from 1951 until 1955.

Kevin Spacey, who has lived in London for the past ten years as artistic director of The Old Vic, certainly has a talent for accents, but Churchill’s distinctive voice is likely to be a tricky dialect to master.

Winston Churchill has been portrayed frequently on screen, including by Brendan Gleeson in HBO’s Into the Storm in 2009, and by Simon Ward in Richard Attenborough’s Young Winston in 1972, portraying Churchill from his unhappy schooldays until his election to Parliament at the age of 26.

Sierra/Affinity is set to produce the film, and fully finance the $20 million production cost. StudioCanal are also said to be in early talks to come on board as producers.

Ben Kaplan has written the screenplay, whilst a director is still being sought out. No other cast information or a release date has been announced.

What do you think of Kevin Spacey taking on the role? Or is there another actor you would prefer to see play Winston Churchill? Let us know in the comments below!

Suzanne is a history graduate who lives in London and is passionate about film (and Jerry Lewis). Check out more of her writing on her blog suzannecamfield.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter @writingsuzanne for all her latest updates.