Richard Dreyfuss Signs on for Spitzer-Like Political Drama

Richard Dreyfuss has signed on to star in a political drama with a plot that sounds all too familiar these days.

Zipper, which co-stars Patrick Wilson and Lena Headey, follows a politician whose inability to control his sexual urges threatens his political future.

Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures is producing the film, which currently is shooting in Baton Rouge, La. Mora Stephens is directing from a screenplay he co-wrote with Joel Viertel.

In a story that echoes the real-life scandals of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, Zipper centers on the life of Sam Ellis (Wilson), a successful family man who presumably has it all until he risks losing everything due to his inability to fight off his obsessive lust for other women. Dreyfuss will play the role of political operator and kingmaker George Hiller.

Stephens previously helmed Conventioneers, a 2005 story of a GOP convention delegate who falls for a woman protesting the event.