The long-spoke-aout musical number in Adam McKay’s Academy-Award nominated Vice has finally made its way online, via The Hollywood Reporter. You can check it out in the player below!
The elaborate musical sequence was choreographed by Hamilton chreographer Brittany Howard. While the sequence, in which Dick Cheney (played by Christian Bale) gets a lesson on Washington politics from Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), works quite well, director Adam McKay ultimately felt it added nothing to the overall film.
RELATED: HBO Miniseries Chernobyl Sets May Premiere Date
“Adam directed the heck out of it; it was really entertaining,” the film’s editor Hank Corwin told The Hollywood Reporter during Oscar season. “But what we found was, in the context of the film, it weighed the film down at the wrong time. The film wanted to move quickly in that area, and it would have slowed it down. It was very painful [to cut it].”
With any luck, the Blu-ray will feature the number in all of its glory when it releases April 2. In the meantime, you can check out Vice on digital platforms starting today!
In Vice, Bale stars as former Vice President Dick Cheney, with Amy Adams as his wife Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush, Carell as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Tyler Perry as Colin Powell, and Bill Pullman as former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.
RELATED: Booksmart Trailer Is a Coming of Age Story for a New Generation
Cheney is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential U.S. Vice Presidents in history, having served under (and, as many regard, OVER) George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. The former Halliburton chairman/CEO — who also served in the Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush administrations — was a hawkish proponent of the War on Terror and the Iraq War, and eventually left office with a 13% approval rating. He was previously portrayed by Richard Dreyfuss in Oliver Stone’s 2008 film W.
Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B produced Vice with McKay and his Gary Sanchez partners, Will Ferrell and Kevin Messick. McKay began development on the Cheney movie shortly after winning his Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Big Short last year. McKay reportedly spent “countless hours” researching the former VP for the Dick Cheney biopic.
