Brendan Fraser Will Play Dwight D. Eisenhower in World War II Thriller Pressure

Movies

Brendan Fraser’s career renaissance continues with a historical drama in which he’ll play an American President – albeit before his years in the White House. Deadline exclusively reports that Fraser will star in Pressure as Dwight D. Eisenhower. Pressure takes place during World War II, when Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and details the days leading up to the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, which Eisenhower planned and called Operation Overlord. Andrew Scott (Sherlock, Fleabag, 1917) will also star in the film as James Stagg, Britain’s Chief Meteorological Officer, who kept Eisenhower and other Allied leaders informed of the weather conditions surrounding the Normandy invasion. Pressure will be directed by Anthony Maras, who wrote the screenplay with David Haig; Maras previously wrote and directed Hotel Mumbai, while Haig, who has mostly worked as an actor, wrote the play on which the film is based. Pressure is scheduled to begin filming in September as the rest of the cast fills out.

Want to feel old? Brendan Fraser is now the same age Eisenhower was during World War II when he was the Supreme Allied Commander. Those of us who remember him from Airheads (a comedy classic) and Encino Man just let out a resigned sigh. Lamentations on the passage of time aside, I’m glad Fraser is making a comeback now that he’s clawed himself out of the depression of divorce and what Philip Berk allegedly did to him at a Hollywood luncheon. Like most people, I always liked him; even when he was mostly doing comedies, he played very different roles, from broad caricatures like in George of the Jungle to earnest paragons like in Blast From the Past to rocker outcasts like in Airheads. But he also starred in dramas like Gods and Monsters – for which he was acclaimed, even if Ian McKellan got all the awards recognition – and The Quiet American, the excellent adaptation of a novel by the great Graham Greene where his earnestness served his naïve but well-meaning character exceptionally well. Now, he’s playing Eisenhower, and if I’m being honest, I’d prefer something like this to another Mummy movie. As much as I enjoyed him in those adventures, I’d rather see Fraser push himself by doing new things, as he’s been doing in the likes of The Whale and Killers of the Flower Moon.

And Pressure sounds like a fascinating movie. It’s about the tension felt in the lead-up to D-Day, but based on the plot synopsis Deadline provides, it seems to focus on the weather conditions and how they could sink the invasion of Normandy. It’s something you don’t think about when you consider the event, but it makes sense, and given how much was riding on Operation Overlord, there’s plenty of suspense to wring from the scenario. This most reminds me of a film from 2000 called Thirteen Days, about the situation in the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis, with Bruce Greenwood as JFK and Kevin Costner as one of his advisors. I’m sure Andrew Scott will do well in what sounds like the lead role, although I’m less sure about the team behind the camera. I haven’t seen Hotel Mumbai, so I don’t know what to expect from Anthony Maras as a writer or director; outside of a few short films, that’s his only experience. The same goes for co-writer David Haig, who only has one TV movie under his belt outside of his theatre writing. A lot will ride on their ability to generate and maintain suspense, which will be a challenge, considering we all know how this turned out. It’s not impossible, though; aside from Thirteen Days, Valkyrie was a terrifically tense thriller about the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler by a cabal of high-ranking Nazis. But Haig’s play appears to be well-enough-liked; we’ll see if Anthony Maras is as skilled a filmmaker as Bryan Singer.