Oliver Stone to make George W Bush biopic
Oliver Stone, the uncompromising director whose subjects have included Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Alexander the Great and Fidel Castro, has set his sights on the present incumbent of the White House.
Oliver Stone: My film will surprise critics and allies of the President
The Oscar-winning filmmaker is working on 'Bush', a project focusing on the life and presidency of George W. Bush, Variety reported. The director is in talks with Josh Brolin, currently starring in No Country For Old Men, to play the lead role.
Stone, who has been highly critical of the president, told the entertainment industry trade paper the film would be "a fair, true portrait of the man", examining areas such as his relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, his youth, and conversion to Christianity.
It would tackle questions such as "how did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" Stone told Variety. And it would 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.
"It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors," said the director, who has spent his career tackling controversial subjects such as the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and Salvador Dali.
He said Brolin was 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."
President Bush has acknowledged that he was a heavy drinker in his youth but has long been sober. Stone, who has fought his own battles with drink and drugs, attended Yale at the same time as the president but dropped out after a year.
In previous interviews, Stone has described Bush as "a synthetic person
a C-student at Yale. An ex-alcoholic who believes in Jesus. What could be more dangerous?" and commented: "He's worse than Nixon in his vulgarity. He looks like he shops at Wal-Mart. That's not what the president is supposed to be. He has no intellectual curiosity and is proud of it."
But the filmmaker insisted the project would not be hatchet job.
"It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to 'Nixon,' to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin," he told Variety. "But if 'Nixon' was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone. People have turned my political ideas into a cliché, but that is superficial. I'm a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great."
Stone, who earned three Oscar nominations for his 1991 conspiracy film JFK and a script nomination in 1996 for Nixon, is seeking financial backing for a script by Stanley Weiser, with whom he co-wrote Wall Street.
He hopes to have the film ready for release date in time for the election in November, or the inauguration of Bush's successor in January.
Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:25 pm
