Christian Bale’s latest Oscar-baiting dramatic physical transformation has been unveiled in the first trailer for Vice, Adam McKay’s biopic of former US vice-president Dick Cheney.
Bale, who lost 60lbs for 2004’s The Machinist, gained 40lbs (as well as a bald cap) to play the part of George W Bush’s controversial vice-president. The film charts Cheney’s rise through the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George HW Bush, before apparently brokering a deal with Bush Jr to heighten the powers of the VP.
In a tweet, McKay described the film as “a snapshot into Dick Cheney’s wild, quiet and shadowy power”.
Bale featured in the ensemble cast for McKay’s acclaimed financial crisis comedy The Big Short. Vice reunites him with another star of that film, Steve Carell, who plays Donald Rumsfeld, alongside a cast which includes Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney and Sam Rockwell as George W Bush.
The film is due in US cinemas on Christmas Day, in Australia on 26 December, and in the UK on 1 February.
