Oliver Stone to make President Bush Film

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Darius Kadivar
by Darius Kadivar
21-Jan-2008
 

As you know Oliver Stone projected to make a documentary on President Ahmadinejad in the lines of what he did with Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. There has been lots of back and forth negotiations and It seems that like most people Stone lost interest in Ahmadinejad after his disastrous speach at Columbia last year. However Stone seems to shift his attention on the FUTURE FORMER US President to be that is good Ol' George Jr but as a feature film. Let's hope that the excellent director of Wall Street and Platoon will not mess it up as he did with his awful casting of Colin Farrel in the title role of Alexander.

See BBC Report

Director Oliver Stone's next film will be about US President George W Bush, he has told Daily Variety. Stone, 61, said he wanted to make "a fair, true portrait" of the president that would contain surprises for "Bush supporters and his detractors". He said he was in talks with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin to play President Bush. Stone has previously made films about former presidents John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Stone said he was currently securing financial backers for the film but hoped production would begin in April. He said the script, written by Stanley Weiser - his co-writer for the 1987 Wall Street film - had been completed before the start of the ongoing US writers' strike in November. In the past, Stone has been critical of Mr Bush's "overreaction" to the 9/11 attacks, saying the president had "set the country back 10 years". But speaking to Daily Variety, he said he would not give a personal opinion of Mr Bush because "the film-maker has to hide in the work". "Here I'm the referee and I want a fair, true portrait of the man," he said. "How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" The film would include a look at the president's "belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States and his coming into his own with the stunning, pre-emptive attack on Iraq", he added. 'Movie-star swagger' Stone said he was hopeful of securing the services of Brolin - who has also been seen recently in American Gangster. "Josh is actually better looking than Bush but has the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush, who has some of that old-time movie-star swagger," Stone added.

He said he was upset when film company United Artists halted production of his Pinkville film - based on the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam - at the end of last year. United Artists cited the writers' strike as the reason for that - despite the script already being finished. But Stone said: "On Pinkville, I had a great script and one of the best casts on any of my films with 40 young actors and Bruce Willis. "It's a shame they lost faith in the film and that they unemployed 500 people right before Christmas. We were three weeks from shooting." He said he wanted to revive Pinkville in the future

 

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programmer craig

I agree, spotty track record

by programmer craig on

the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush

Which Bush is he talking about!? Jenna? Come on... I voted for the guy and even I have to admit he looks like a deer caught in the headlights whenever he's on TV.

Anyway, about Oliver Stone... his movies seem to be best when he's not trying to be political. The political commentary seeps into them anyway, but he often manages to get some decent movie making done too. So, I don't think I'll be seeing a movie made by him about Bush or AJ, but maybe if he makes one about the war in Iraq I'll check it out.

 


Niki Tehranchi

Such highs and lows

by Niki Tehranchi on

Oliver Stone's record as a director is very uneven.  He can be great, like Wall Street, or Talk Radio (still one of my favorite films to date).  On the other hand, I found his Nixon appalling and Natural Born Killers, although I guess you could call it bold because of his technical experimentation, was in the end very hollow and to me represented the worst of the 1990s American movies.  Still, an interesting director.  You never know how the movie will turn out, kind of like Brian De Palma.  By the way, his former assistant, Azita Zendel, made a very thinly disguised autobiographical film about her years working for him, called Controlled Chaos.