Christopher McQuarrie is bringing Bill Clinton's ridiculous mystery novel to Showtime

By Sam Barsanti | February 7, 2019 | 7:35pm

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The amount of wacky things happening in this news story is above average, so we’re just going to need everyone to stay calm and hold off on checking for signs that they’ve descended into some kind of twilight-y zone. Here we go: A few years ago, we reported that Bill Clinton and James Patterson were working together on a mystery novel with the absolute Italian-chef-kiss title The President Is Missing, with Clinton and Patterson setting up aggressive and top secret meetings with the biggest names in Hollywood (Abrams, Spielberg, Clooney) in hopes of setting up an adaptation of some sort before the book was even released. The book didn’t turn out great, but its premise—noble president sneaks out of the White House so he can single-handedly foil a cyber-terrorism attack—is still utterly brilliant, so a plan to turn The President Is Missing into a TV show is still moving forward.

According to Deadline, Christopher McQuarrie from the last few Mission: Impossible movies is working with Invictus’ Anthony Peckham to develop a The President Is Missing TV series for Showtime. McQuarrie makes actual action movies! He could get Tom Cruise to star in this! The name of the book is The President Is Missing and it was co-written by Bill Clinton! This is all amazing! (Except for the book itself, which is apparently mediocre.)