The Queen costar Michael Sheen arrived in Los Angeles a couple of days ago, and one of the first things he attended to after touching down at LAX was join Pete Hammond and Helen Mirren in last night’s discussion about the Stephen Frears- directed drama following a Variety screening at the Cinerama Dome. I’ve seen The Queen three times now, and Sheen’s performance seems to become richer and more spot-on with each viewing.

(l.) Michael Sheen as David Frost in Nixon/Frost; (r.) Frank Langella, Sheen

Sheen is on hiatus from his on-stage role as David Frost in the London production of Peter Morgan’s Frost/Nixon, an acclaimed drama based on the interviews that David Frost did with ex-president Richard Nixon in the mid ’70s. The play, which Ron Howard has arranged to direct as a feature film, will re-open at a West End theatre in three or four weeks. Howard, of course, works only with big-name stars, which seems to put Sheen and costar Frank Langella (whio plays former president Richard Nixon) at a disadvantage as far as casting is concerned.
I haven’t seen Frost/Nixon or even read it, but Sheen and Langella have been highly praised for their respective performances, and something about Sheen’s occasionally unctuous Tony Blair in The Queen tells me he’s probably right on the money as Frost. And I don’t know…it seems a shame that Howard and Imagine have come along and stuck their mitts into this thing (i.e., buying the film rights, adapting it into a film). You just know on this or that level that it’s going to come out…I don’t know, Opie-fied.

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