Frank Langella — a top Tony Award contender for "Frost/Nixon" — will repeat his role as the disgraced U.S. President in a movie version helmed by Oscar winner Ron Howard, reports Variety. Earlier reports had Howard wooing Warren Beatty, not seen on the screen in six years, but he evidently gave up on the actor who is notoriously slow to make up his mind. Langella's Broadway co-star Michael Sheen, playing TV talker David Frost, has already signed on to the picture which rolls August 27, a mere two weeks after the Rialto run ends. Script is by playwright Peter Morgan, an Oscar nominee this year for "The Queen," which featured Sheen as Tony Blair opposite Oscar winner Helen Mirren. Morgan also wrote the script for "Last King of Scotland," which won best actor for Forest Whitaker.

Anthony Hopkins parlayed his 1996 portrayal of the 37th President into an Oscar nod ("Nixon"), while Jason Robards, playing a thinly veiled version of the man called Richard Monckton no less, got an Emmy nom in 1978 for "Washington: Behind Closed Doors." For Langella, 69, this could be a rare chance at Oscar gold. A 1970 Golden Globe nominee as most promising newcomer for his screen debut in "Diary of a Mad Housewife," he's had trouble clicking in Hollywood since. But in New York, he's won two Tonys in the supporting category. This year he is a frontrunner in the lead-actor race crowded with past Tony winners, including Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy ("Inherit the Wind"), Kevin Spacey ("Moon for the Misbegotten"), Liev Shreiber ("Talk Radio"), and Nathan Lane ("Butley"). Tony nominees will be announced May 15 with the awardsfest set for June 10.