Check out the long-awaited first trailer for the upcoming movie “Reagan,” which was filmed primarily in Oklahoma.
Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the almost three-minute preview for the biopic of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives viewers several looks at the movie’s stars, Dennis Quaid, Jon Voight and Penelope Ann Miller.
But it also offers sneak peeks of Oklahoma talents Rachel Cannon, who plays a housewife who can’t place Ron and Nancy Reagan when they visit her house on the campaign trail, and Darci Lynne, who appears as a damsel in distress rescued by the future president (David Henrie) during his teenage stint as a lifeguard.
“I was a lifeguard on a river, and I learned how to read the currents: not just the ones on the surface, but also the ones deep underneath the water,” Reagan says in the trailer, which draws parallels between his impressive run saving swimmers to his way of spotting potential geopolitical conflicts as president.
When and where in Oklahoma was the movie ‘Reagan’ filmed?
Due in theaters this summer, the biographical drama about America’s 40th president began filming in the Oklahoma City and Guthrie areas in September 2020. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oklahoma was one of the few states where filming on movies like “Reagan” could continue.
The production was headquartered in Guthrie, with filming centered at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. In the trailer, viewers can get a glimpse at how the historic building stood in for the Oval Office at the White House, the fabled Cocoanut Grove supper club in Hollywood and even some locales in Cold War Russia.
Although the production was forced to shut down twice due to COVID, the project, which used the state’s film rebate, created 1,966 local jobs and generated $16.6 million in direct spending in fall 2020, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
The production moved to California in early 2021 to film at Reagan’s Rancho Del Cielo ranch outside of Santa Barbara. It returned to Guthrie in summer 2021 to shoot additional footage, including outdoor water sequences from the president’s youth, as well as John Hinckley Jr.’s 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, which are both featured in the trailer.
Filming also took place on Air Force One, according to a news release.
Reagan served two terms as president, from 1981 to 1989, and died on June 5, 2004, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Who sings ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the ‘Reagan’ trailer?
Directed by Sean McNamara (“Soul Surfer,” “The Miracle Season”), the biopic follows Ronald Reagan’s life from his childhood in Dixon, Illinois, to his acting career in Hollywood, to the U.S. presidency and the world stage.
The first trailer shows a sampling of all those different time frames, set to a pensive cover of Tears for Fears’ familiar 1980s hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Independent California singer-songwriter Molly Jenson recorded the moody cover.
Who stars in ‘Reagan’ and how much of Ronald Reagan’s life does the movie cover?
Quaid, who has made at least three movies in Oklahoma with “Reagan,” 2018’s “I Can Only Imagine” and 2021’s “American Underdog,” portrays Reagan as an adult. Tommy Ragen (“Mighty Oak,” the musical “School of Rock”) and Henrie (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) play Reagan as a boy and as a young man, respectively.
Voight (“Deliverance,” “Coming Home”) co-stars as Viktor Petrovich, a fictional KGB agent who trails Reagan throughout his political career. “Reagan” begins as 90-year-old Petrovich — a composite character based on real people — is visited by an up-and-coming Russian leader who wants to know how the Soviet Union was lost.
The spy who knows everything there is to know about Reagan recounts the tale of his adversary — the man he mockingly nicknamed “The Crusader” — beginning in 1922, when 11-year-old Ronald Reagan faces the first crisis of his eventful life.
Along with providing film fans with a look at the three actors playing the title role as well as Voight as his nemesis, the trailer gives glimpses of Miller as Reagan’s first lady, Nancy Reagan; Mena Suvari as Reagan’s first wife, Jane Wyman; Olek Krupa as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev; and Kevin Dillon as Warner Bros. co-founder Jack Warner.
“Reagan” is inspired by Paul Kengor’s book “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism” and written by Howard Klausner (“Space Cowboys”) and Jonas McCord (“Ask the Dust”).
Which Oklahoma studio helped with de-aging effects for ‘Reagan?’
Producer Mark Joseph told The Oklahoman in an autumn 2022 email that the film’s extensive post-production — especially de-aging special effects for Quaid and Voight — would mean a long wait for “Reagan” to arrive in theaters.
Along with filming in Oklahoma, the makers of “Reagan” also tapped into the Sooner State’s resources for post-production: The Oklahoma City film studio, production house and advertising agency Boiling Point provided visual effects work on the biopic. Several of Boiling Points’ ‘VFX shots appear in the trailer, The Oklahoman has confirmed.
When is the movie ‘Reagan’ coming to theaters?
“Reagan” is due to open Aug. 30 in movie theaters nationwide.
Advance group tickets are now available for groups of 50 people or more. For information, go to https://www.reaganmovie.com.
