Oliver Stone elects Josh Brolin for BUSH!
The news broke very late last night here in the U.K. and it's now been confirmed in a massive article over at Variety. Oliver Stone, America's film making political conscious has taken on his most controversial film to date. He is to shoot a biopic of current American President George W. Bush with 39 year old actor Josh Brolin, to play the embattled figure on screen.
A 12 months in development script for BUSH (what a title!) that Stone has been working on with Stanley Weiser has quietly been shopped around studio's recently looking for financing. Weiser was the guy who co-wrote WALL STREET with Stone back in the late 80's and also helped Stone with NIXON and ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. The script was completed pre-strike and Stone has taken much of his crew that was ready to film the My Lai Massacre PINKVILLE with him. That project should have been filming right now before United Artists pulled the plug when the script needed tweaking, but was locked because of strike action... though some believe it's because of the failure of the 'war on terror' movies last year, in particular U.A.'s own LIONS FOR LAMBS. Stone's comments to Variety, claim he wants the film to be a more a historical re-telling of how Bush came to power and not a damning case against the president. Think more in line with Frears' THE QUEEN..."It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to 'Nixon,' to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin...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 cliche, 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. I'm the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man. How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It's like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I'll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own with the stunning, preemptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors."I think it's pretty obvious that Stone will want the movie released by the political elections in November and if casting and production goes well in the next few weeks this one could begin filming in April. He just needs to convince a studio to back the film but I can't see that being a problem because this is a guaranteed Gold mine. I mean remember Michael Moore's documentary FAHRENHEIT 9/11 made over $200 million worldwide. Damning cases against U.S. Presidents... especially about one currently in power is guaranteed cash back, and some lofty interest. Stone has been a well known critical figure of the current Bush administration and despite his well intentioned comments, I'm not sure if he is the type of person who will be able to restrain himself from adding his political agenda to the piece. To be fair, he was pretty constraint on his last movie WORLD TRADE CENTER but his previous biopic's all carry his voice loud and clear.
