It was announced almost three weeks ago that Chris Pine, 39, will play Walter Cronkite in Newsflash, a real-time drama about how the trusted CBS anchorman and various CBS staffers handled the incoming news of JFK’s assassination on 11.22.63.

I’m presuming Pine will have to either gain weight or wear chubby-face makeup in order to resemble the 47 year-old Cronkite, who was rounder and older-looking on that day, even by the standards of the early ’60s, and with a face, unlike Pine’s, that wasn’t especially handsome or chiselled.

But at least Pine will make for a better Cronkite than Seth Rogen would have…good God, that would’ve been terrible! Responsible parties (including director David Gordon Green) actually wanted Rogen to play the legendary newsman.

I’ve read a draft of Ben Jacoby‘s Newsflash script. I found it steady and convincing — smoothly written, well-researched, not brilliant but very decent. Cronkite is the stalwart, steady-at-the-tiller hero, of course. CBS honcho Jim Aubrey is the villain of the piece.

I don’t know when Newsflash will shoot (probably not for a while) but Pine will also portray former White House attorney and Watergate whistle-blower John Dean in an Amazon feature.

A script for the Dean film apparently hasn’t been written yet.

Variety‘s Matt Donnelly: “The film will follow the life and political saga of Dean, who served as White House counsel for President Richard Nixon from July 1970 through April 1973.

The Dean film will probably turn out to be a more interesting project than Newsflash, if for no other reason than the built-in dramatic conflict (i.e., a young believer in Nixon and the Republican cause experiences an agonizing re-appraisal when the Watergate shit hits the fan).