There are few sweeter comeback stories in Hollywood than that of Brendan Fraser. After being a box office draw in the late 90’s to mid 2000’s, his career seemingly dried up in terms of big roles and opportunities. Jump ahead to 2022 when his starring role in “The Whale” started picking up Oscar buzz. So many details about his life, health, and mistreatment came out that when he took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for the aforementioned film, it was a moment of vindication. That momentum keeps rolling along as Fraser has a pretty commanding role coming up, in an almost literal sense of the term.
“Pressure” is not just an upcoming film that Fraser will be starring in, it’s also a 2014 dramatic play written by David Haig about the lead up to the D-Day invasion and the storming of Normandy in 1944. This being a massive military operation, there were a number of things that had to go exactly to plan, with one of them being the weather. The wrong conditions could have been disastrous to General Eisenhower’s plans, and we’ll get to see that stress play out on Brendan Fraser’s face as he’ll be the one playing Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Joining him will be the main player in the story, Oscar nominee Andrew Scott (“Ripley,” “Knives Out 3“) in the role of British meteorologist, James Stagg. Stagg was in the position of having to be the one to give Eisenhower the greenlight on whether the weather would be good to go. In hindsight, he effectively had to give the most important weather forecast in the history of the modern world. And considering they made a play about this subject that was based on real life events, it’s safe to say that it probably wasn’t as easy as saying, “Looks like sun is in the forecast, General!”
As of the time of this writing, the theatrical play of “Pressure” has not yet been brought to the United States, with the closest performance being in Toronto, Canada in 2023. With the film version being set to shoot sometime in September, it may turn out that American audiences’ first introduction to the play will be through the film instead. Fittingly enough, even though neither Fraser or Scott performed in the theatrical runs for the play, they’re both experienced stage actors, making their casting all the more fitting.
It’s remarkable to think that Fraser will be having the distinction of portraying a former general and President of the United States given where his career was only a few years ago. His dramatic chops aren’t in question, especially if you’ve seen him in “School Ties” or “Gods and Monsters,” so let’s see how he manages to handle the …PRESSURE, of being Eisenhower!
