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Seth Rogen to Play Newsman Walter Cronkite in New Kennedy Assassination Film

Funnyman Seth Rogen is set to get serious on the big screen again – as revered newsman Walter Cronkite.

The actor, who is most famous for stoner comedies like Pineapple Express and Superbad, will take on the role of Cronkite in David Gordon Green’s new movie Newsflash.

Production on the film, which follows the drama immediately after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Texas in November, 1963.

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The CBS newsman was among the personalities who broke the devastating story to America and quickly became known as the most trusted TV news anchor in the nation.

Sources tell Deadline.com Mark Ruffalo is the frontrunner to play Cronkite’s producer Don Hewitt, while Bryan Cranston is in the running to play their boss Jim Aubrey. Director Green is also hoping to cast a young star as another distinguished news anchor, Dan Rather, who was among the TV reporters who sought out the truth after Kennedy was shot.

The movie’s premise imagines an under-pressure Aubrey desperate to improve ratings and show profit.

Convinced the CBS Evening News broadcast was under performing, he threatened to scrap the program and replace it with something more popular.

Newsflash will shoot early next year (18) with a view to releasing the film around the 55th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination in November (18).

It won’t be Rogen’s first attempt at drama – he won critical acclaim for his role as Steve Wozniak in 2015 biopic Steve Jobs.

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Green, who directed Rogen in 2008 comedy Pineapple Express, is currently shooting upcoming horror reboot Halloween.

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