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With John Edwards movie, Aaron Sorkin takes on (even juicier) political drama

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Just when the blogosphere had finished digesting a pretty great trailer derived from an Aaron Sorkin script, the “West Wing” maestro hits us with another doozy: He’s developing a movie based on the sordid/spectacular story of John Edwards, his wife, Elizabeth, and his mistress, Rielle Hunter, all from the point of view of aide Andrew Young, who was caught at the center of it all.

Sorkin has optioned Young’s “The Politician,” his insidery take on working for the onetime political wunderkind. In his bestseller, Young looks at the roller-coaster ride that was the candidate’s personal and professional life, and documents the extraordinary things Young was asked to do, and sometimes did, for his former boss before it all went to seed.

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The amazing thing is that as outrageous as the story is, according to Sorkin, it only begins to scratch the surface. “There is much more to Andrew’s book than what has been reported,” Sorkin said in a statement. And the best part -- well, we hope -- is that Sorkin will get behind the camera to direct instead of simply writing the script.

It’s still early -- no studio, no actors and of course no script. So one can’t get too excited that it will follow right on the heels of “The Social Network,” or “Moneyball,” which Sorkin wrote and which is shooting in downtown Los Angeles. Still, for fans of “The West Wing” -- or just quality A-list cinema -- it’s tough to be anything but excited.

-- Steven Zeitchik
twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

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