(FORTUNE Magazine) – The makers of a made-for-TV movie based on Barbarians at the Gate, 1990's best-seller by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar on the RJR Nabisco takeover battle, have one key role to fill before filming can start. They're looking for an actor to play Henry Kravis, whose Kohlberg Kravis Roberts buyout firm nailed down the tobacco and cookie company in a $25 billion LBO. The other lead, that of F. Ross Johnson, now 59, the Canadian-born CEO whose grab at his own company precipitated the whole thing, goes to James Garner, 63. Garner has specialized as a conniver in such television series as Maverick, The Rockford Files, and Man of the People, currently showing (to mixed reviews) on NBC. Who'll play Kravis? Producer Ray (Steel Magnolias) Stark hasn't decided. Fortune invited Kravis, 47, to make a suggestion, but he declined comment through a spokesperson. So Fortune staff members came up with their own candidates. The envelope please . . . Dustin Hoffman, 54, won with eight of the 27 votes cast. Other nominees included Richard Dreyfuss, Mel Brooks, and Harvey Keitel, who culled one vote apiece. Shooting starts in March. If you have a better suggestion by then, let us know. But beware, you'll need an actor who might be persuaded to work for relative peanuts. The movie, written by Larry Gelbart, author of numerous MASH episodes and also the script of City of Angels, the Broadway musical, is budgeted at a humble $5 million. That's a big discount from the $23 million- plus that Ross Johnson pocketed as a consolation prize when he lost his fight for the company.