New Reagan Movie Lowell Park has a Director

A young Ronald Reagan in Dixon, Illinois.

By Jason Apuzzo. According to today’s New York Post, Charlie Carner (an acquaintance of mine) is apparently going to be directing a new movie about the young Ronald Reagan called Lowell Park, based on a novel of the same name. According to the Post, Lowell Park deals with the story of Reagan’s days as a lifeguard in Dixon, Illinois, when he became something of a local legend by saving a lot of bathers from drowning.

According to The Post:

“The novel tells the story of a young woman, Jenny, who time travels back to the summer of 1932, and falls in love with a young Ronald Reagan who is spending his summers as a lifeguard at Lowell Park in Dixon, Illinois, the small town where ‘Dutch’ Reagan grew up,” says a press release from The Empire Film Group, which hopes to begin rolling the cameras next summer, while celebrations of Reagan’s 100th birthday are still in swing.

So Lowell Park is a time travel project, as well. Sounding a little bit like Back to the Future? We’ll see how this goes …

This project, by the way, is not the one that was reported on here several months ago involving Mark Joseph and his group. And I would remind people, incidentally, that Ronald Reagan was also featured on-screen this summer in Farewell, featuring Fred Ward as Reagan.

Posted on November 3rd, 2010 at 9:00am.

Published by

Jason Apuzzo

Jason Apuzzo is co-Editor of Libertas Film Magazine.

10 thoughts on “New Reagan Movie Lowell Park has a Director”

  1. I took a writing class with Charlie Carner a while back. Learned a lot from him. He was a really down-to-earth guy too. Had a great Chicago accent!

    This Reagan movie sounds pretty cool, but then I’m a sucker for time travel stuff. 😀
    Sounds like it’s going to be a romance, but I wonder if it will be more ligthhearted or dramatic in tone.

  2. [SPOILER ALERT FROM WIKIPEDIA WRITEUP ABOUT THE BOOK]

    Hmmm, sounds, eh…interesting? I don’t really know what to think of this one. I like most pro-Reagan projects, which this certainly seems to be, but time travel? I guess it could work, but the whole storyline about messing up the date and meeting a young Lincoln first seems a little superfluous.

    Also, when this movie comes out, someone somewhere on the left is going to make some comment that the reason Reagan didn’t remember the girl when they crossed paths a second time is because the onset of Alzheimer’s disease had already set in. You can bank on it. LOL

    1. Actually, Farewell from this summer was quite good … perhaps because it wasn’t made in Hollywood. I’m not sure this new one will be made within the system, either.

      1. Oh, I didn’t see Farewell. In that case, I’ll have to add it to my list.

        I was thinking in particular of the one starring Josh Brolin’s dad, where Reagan called himself the anti-Christ. It’s funny just thinking about how bad that line is.

        BTW, I think I saw you and Govindini driving through Burbank two weekends ago. No, I’m not stalking you – just been a fan of the site for many years.

        1. Hey, Wilson, I appreciate it! l don’t t think we were in Burbank, though, unless we were on our way somewhere else …

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