Julianne Moore as Hillary Clinton in Special Relationship movie

The makers of a film that sets out to explore the relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton during the period of the Monica Lewinsky scandal - called Special Relationship - have finally announced the casting decisions for some of the key roles. And there are some unexpected names on the list.

Given that Michael Sheen and Helen McCory have been asked to reprise their roles as Tony and Cherie Blair in the 2006 film The Queen, it would seem the filmmakers were searching for lookalike actors. Which makes the choice of flame-haired Julianne Moore (left) to portray Hillary Clinton (right), one-time First Lady, and now Secretary of State, a big surprise.

And the role of Bill Clinton is to be taken on by Dennis Quaid, who is hardly a double for Bill Clinton. He beat four other actors under consideration - Russell Crowe, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin and Tim Robbins.

The film, which will be shot in London and Washington this summer, marks the directorial debut of Peter Morgan, who wrote The Queen as well as the recent Oscar-nominated Frost/Nixon and The Damned United, both of which also starred Sheen.

While the film will seek to decipher what the term 'special relationship' means to the UK and US, covering the period 1997 when Blair was came to power to the 2000 presidential elections, it will also show how Blair grew frustrated because so much of Clinton's attention was taken up with the storm around Monica Lewinsky.

Those intrigued to discover who will play Monica in the film will be disappointed: Morgan has decided to use only archive footage of her culled from TV news bulletins and video of her closed-door testimony to Congress.