Will Ferrell 'not pursuing' role in Ronald Reagan movie project

Less than a week after news broke that Will Ferrell had signed on to portray former president Ronald Reagan in a fictional comedy centered around the president's struggles with Alzheimer's Disease, Ferrell has backed out of the project.

"The Reagan script is one of a number of scripts that had been submitted to Will Ferrell which he had considered. While it is by no means a 'Alzheimer's comedy,' as has been suggested, Mr. Ferrell is not pursuing this project," a rep for Ferrell clarified on Friday.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that Ferrell had signed on to the film, which would follow a fictional assistant who is tasked with convincing the aging Reagan that he is an actor playing the President of the United States in a film.

After that news was announced, members of the Reagan family lashed out against the famed comedian, saying that Alzheimer's was no laughing matter.

"There's nothing funny about Alzheimer's. It is terrifying for the families of those who suffer from it. They live with the fear [of] what will change next, they have to live with this terror and grief every day," Reagan's daughter Patti Davis told the New York Post.

"This movie is cruel, not just to my father, but to the millions of people who have the disease, and the millions more who care for them and watch them suffer every day."

Cox Media Group