HBO to stage 2008 campaign

If you thought last year's presidential campaign was stranger than fiction, especially after Sarah Palin got into the game, then this one's for you (and me).

We've barely caught our breath after the seemingly endless battle of 2008. But HBO has just optioned a forthcoming book called "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" and hired screenwriter Charles Leavitt to adapt it. The book (by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann) and the movie will portray the candidates and follow the election from their point of view.

"It's funny to call Obama and Hillary characters, but that's how I have to look at them," screenwriter Leavitt told Variety. "To me, the primary was one of the greatest title fights of the century, and John [Heilemann] and Mark [Halperin] have a treasure chest of anecdotes and inside stories. I think it will present itself almost like a stage play, like 'Frost/Nixon' or 'The Queen.'" Halperin, who is editor-at-large at Time (and no hero to Gawker) and Heilemann, a political correspondent for New York magazine, will be consultants on the film.

After scoring a mess of Emmy nominations (and some critical acclaim, though not mine) with "Recount," HBO is clearly psyched to continue in the pursuit of contemporary politics, as well as historical ("John Adams"). The pay channel already has "Frost/Nixon" scribe Peter Morgan writing-directing a movie called "The Special Relationship," about the rapport between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair featuring Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton, Julianne Moore as Hillary Clinton, and -- who else? -- Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. Perhaps HBO is taking the advice of creative consultant Frank Rich?

Obviously, the casting of "Game Change" will be CRITICAL. I suspect the movie will not be a satire and Tina Fey will not be in the cast. Can anyone else play Sarah Palin at this point? And who will be Obama? McCain? Hillary?