Confession time, I've never watched The West Wing. Not a single episode. That's probably something I should remedy, especially if the series returns to television anytime soon. Aaron Sorkin, who created the series, recently sat down with THR to chat the upcoming MOLLY'S GAME, and the discussion soon turned to The West Wing. NBC has a standing offer for Aaron Sorkin to reboot The West Wing, and it's something which Sorkin actually considers from time to time.
When asked whether the potential revival would draw from real-life events and introduce a Donald Trump-like figure, Aaron Sorkin winced and explained that the current president holds no interest for him. "Trump is exactly what he looks like: a really dumb guy with an observable psychiatric disorder," Sorkin said. Just who would be leading the country in the fictional West Wing universe at this point? None other than Sterling K. Brown (This is Us).
Sorkin's preferred scenario, he tells me, would involve "Sterling K. Brown as the president, and there's some kind of jam, an emergency, a very delicate situation involving the threat of war or something, and [President] Bartlet [played by Martin Sheen], long since retired, is consulted in the way that Bill Clinton used to consult with Nixon."
Although he's obviously entertained the idea of a revival of The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin admits that he gets stuck when attempting to figure out how to bring C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) or Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) into this new scenario. Who knows whether Sorkin would ever move ahead with this revival, but if he does, it sounds like Sterling K. Brown is more than happy to make himself available.
Aaron Sorkin's next project will be MOLLY'S GAME, which stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, and Kevin Costner. The upcoming crime drama follows Bloom as she becomes the target of an FBI investigation into her exclusive high-stakes poker empire for Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans, and the Russian mob. Our own Chris Bumbray caught the film when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, so be sure to check out his review!
The official synopsis for MOLLY'S GAME:
MOLLY’S GAME is the true story of Molly Bloom a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.
MOLLY'S GAME is set for a December 25, 2017 release.