Ronald Reagan’s daughter criticizes comedy about her father’s Alzheimer’s

Patti Davis, the daughter of former President Ronald Reagan, on Thursday criticized the comedy film about her father that will star actor Will Ferrell and which will focus on his second term, when he began to notice the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Variety reported Wednesday that Ferrell, known for his humorous spoofs of former President George W. Bush, will play Reagan in the film, provisionally entitled “Reagan.”

The screenplay has been written by Mike Rosolio and focuses on an intern trying to convince Reagan that he is an actor playing the part of the president in a movie.

After learning of the planned film, Davis, a former actress, on Thursday published an open letter to Ferrell on her blog harshly criticizing using a mental illness as material for a comedy.

“I saw the news bulletin as did everyone that you intend to portray my father in the throes of Alzheimer’s for a comedy that you are also producing,” Davis wrote in her blog. “Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other versions of dementia. Perhaps if you knew more, you would not find the subject humorous.”

Davis said that Alzheimer’s strikes people from all walks of life, adding that “It steals what is most precious to a human being memories, connections, the familiar landmarks of a lifetime that we all come to rely on to hold our place secure in this world and keep us linked to those we have come to know and love.”

Calling Alzheimer’s “the ultimate pirate, pillaging a person’s life and leaving an empty landscape behind,” Davis, 63, “Perhaps for your comedy you would like to visit some dementia facilities. I have I didn’t find anything comedic there, and my hope would be that if you’re a decent human being, you wouldn’t either.”

In addition, Michael Reagan, a son of the late president and Davis’s halfbrother, criticized the film on Wednesday saying on his Twitter account that Alzheimer’s is not funny.

“What an (outrage). Alzheimers (sic) is not (a) joke. It kills. You should be ashamed all of you,” wrote Reagan.

The screenplay for “Reagan,” which does not yet have a director, reportedly was on the 2015 “Black List” an annual industry roundup of the best unfilmed screenplays.