Halle Berry is set to star in a feature film adaptation of The President Is Missing, the bestselling political thriller by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. The project is in development at Apple Original Films, with Berry playing President Joanna Duncan in a gender-swapped take on the story.
The novel, published in 2018, became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and follows a sitting U.S. president forced to go on the run to stop a catastrophic terrorist attack that could plunge the country into chaos. In the film version, President Duncan must evade her own security detail and operate outside the White House to prevent a disaster threatening the nation.
The President Is Missing was previously set up at Showtime as a television series and went to pilot, with David Oyelowo attached to star as the president. That version stalled during the pandemic and did not move forward. Berry now holds the rights to the property and is redeveloping it as a feature.
The film is being written by Nicole Perlman and David Chasteen. Berry will produce through her banner HalleHolly alongside RK Films’ Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum, with Clinton and Patterson also producing via James Patterson Entertainment.
The project marks another high-profile starring role for Berry as she continues to build a slate of film and television projects centered on complex, power-driven characters across major studios and streamers.
The project is one of several film and television titles currently in development for Berry, who has built out an expanding slate of projects across major studios and streamers through HalleHolly.