US President Barack Obama was considered for a part in the upcoming Anchorman movie, the film's producer has revealed.

In an interview to be broadcast on the Picture Show this Saturday at 8pm, Adam McKay told Newstalk they spent two weeks in negotiations with the White House about a potential cameo role.

"We were actually doing so well with cameos, we decided to go try Barack Obama. We'd a connection to the White House who said there's a chance this could happen.

"And for about two weeks there was this little game going on, wondering 'is he actually going to do this?' And then of course, something horrible happened in the world and that was it, it didn't happen. Thank God!"

He told the show's presenter, Philip Molloy that Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey were also considered for roles, but they couldn't take part. However, McKay said the list of people who were unable to participate was rather small.

"The first movie had such a love about it that people were actually calling us and asking, which was an unusual position to be in. We found that of our wishlist of cameos, we basically got everyone we wanted."

You can hear an excerpt from the interview here: