The Comey Rule, a new series about the fraught dynamic between former FBI Director James Comey and President Donald Trump, will make its impact ahead of the election. In late September, two Emmy-winning actors will assume the lead roles, with Jeff Daniels playing Comey and Brendan Gleeson playing Trump. Here’s everything we know about the high-profile limited series, including a splashy first trailer and that switch from a November to September premiere date.
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The Comey Rule will premiere two months early—prior to the election.
Previously, it was announced that the two-part, four-hour event series would premiere on Showtime on back-to-back nights in late November. But two weeks later, Deadline reported that the show will now air two months ahead of schedule—on September 27 and 28 at 9 p.m.
The shift came after the show’s writer and director, Billy Ray, penned an open letter to the cast apologizing for releasing The Comey Rule post-election. “I know what a disappointment this is to you. It is for me too–because while I’ve made movies about my country before, this was the first time I ever made a movie for my country,” Ray said in a letter published by Deadline earlier this week. “We all were hoping to get this story in front of the American people months before the coming election. And that was a reasonable expectation considering that we’d been given a mandate by the network to do whatever was necessary to deliver by May 15.”
Sources told Deadline that the entire cast expected the show to play in the midst of election season. The outlet wrote: “When they were informed that it would be placed after the elections—a slot that those behind the scenes felt would render it nothing more than a historical footnote—Daniels was leaning toward not promoting the (reportedly $40 million) series at all, sources said.” He’s now likely to promote The Comey Rule on talk shows and political programs alike.
The first trailer showcases Gleeson’s jaw-dropping Trump transformation.
If the idea of Gleeson as Trump sounded odd, to see his transformation is astounding. A first trailer for The Comey Rule places the current president and his former FBI director centerstage. The show seemingly begins 15 days before the 2016 presidential election as 346,000 of Hilary Clinton’s emails hit the FBI’s desk. From there, the results of the election shock the agency, a surprise only bolstered by Trump’s need to get loyalty from Comey at a private dinner.
In addition to Gleeson’s eerie Trump impression and Daniels as Comey, a few other cast members are previewed in the trailer. These include Holly Hunter as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Jennifer Ehle as Patrice Comey, House of Cards‘ Michael Kelly as former FBI director Andrew McCabe, and High Fidelity‘s Kingsley Ben-Adir as President Barack Obama.
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The show is based on Comey’s bestselling tell-all about the 2016 election.
The Comey Rule will rip its storylines straight from the headlines, using Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty as source material. Production also reportedly conducted more than a year of additional interviews with key figures involved in Comey and Trump’s 2016 showdown. The first part of the show will dive into the early days of the Russia investigation and the FBI’s inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails ahead of election night. Part two will explore the fallout between Comey and Trump during the turbulent early months of Trump’s presidency.
A press release describes The Comey Rule, in part, as “an immersive, behind-the-headlines account of the historically turbulent events surrounding the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, which divided a nation. The Comey Rule is not a biopic of one man, but is instead the story of two powerful figures, Comey and Trump, whose strikingly different personalities, ethics and loyalties put them on a collision course.”
There is a high-profile cast and creative team involved.
The limited series was executive produced by Shane Salerno, Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin, and Ray.
Vanity Fair exclusively premiered the show’s first teaser trailer and photos from the film. Other starry cast members will be playing everyone from Robert Mueller to President Barack Obama. The ensemble includes Hunter as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Kelly as former FBI director Andrew McCabe, Ehle as Patrice Comey, Scoot McNairy as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Jonathan Banks as former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, Oona Chaplin as former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Amy Seimetz as former FBI lawyer Trisha Anderson, Steven Pasquale as former FBI agent Peter Strzok, Peter Coyote as Robert Mueller, and Ben-Adir as President Barack Obama.
The Comey Rule will premiere on Showtime Sunday, September 27 at 9 p.m.
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