"DiCaprio, Clooney to star in movie about Howard Dean"

Guardian UK:

Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are to star in a film loosely based on the rise and fall of presidential hopeful Howard Dean. The Warner Bros production will be based on a stage-play written by Beau Willimon, a former assistant on the Dean campaign.

Entitled Farragut North, after a Washington Metro station in the heart of the lobbyist district, the film sounds like darker version of Joe Roth's Primary Colours. It tells the tale of a youthful communications guru working for a principled but unorthodox politician who finds himself undone by a slick and corrupt Washington establishment. Currently in rehearsal, Willimon's stage-play is set to open on Broadway in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Mike Nichols is directing.

Dean was a former Governor of Vermont whose unusual grassroots funding techniques and bold anti-war message galvanised public opinion in the run-up to the 2004 election. He was an early frontrunner to win the Democratic presidential nomination only to fall flat at the Iowa caucuses, placed third behind John Kerry and John Edwards. His defiant response to this defeat, culminating in the infamous "Dean scream", was judged to be a PR disaster that effectively ended his challenge.

DiCaprio and Clooney will produce the film as well as starring. It is believed that DiCaprio will play the young communications chief while Clooney stars as the Dean surrogate.

Howie P.S.: How "loose" will the base be, is what I'm wondering.