Hoffman to play Nixon in new movie

Actor Dustin Hoffman once played a journalist who helped bring about the downfall of US leader Richard Nixon. Now he is set to play an ex-president in his next movie.

Hoffman, who starred as Carl Bernstein in All The President’s Men, is negotiating to appear in a new comedy called Mooseport.

He would star as a man whose plan to retire in a small East Coast town is disrupted when the townsfolk implored him to fill the vacant seat of mayor, Variety reports.

But his opponent is an unassuming hardware store owner (played by US television star Ray Romano), and he only realises how popular he is once it’s too late to pull out.

The plan is to shoot the film next spring when Romano has a break from television. The actor has just won his first Emmy for his work on popular US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.

He also lent his voice to the hit animated film Ice Age and is expected to return for a sequel.

Hoffman, 65, can currently be seen in the States playing a grieving father alongside Susan Sarandon in drama Moonlight Mile.