It looks like the Vietnam War film Pinkville, which Oliver Stone was set to begin directing just before Christmas last year is not going to be coming back any time soon as he tells Variety, “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.” However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t prepping another film.
In the same article, Variety reports Stone is shopping around a script by Jon Kilik about a film focusing on the life and presidency of George W. Bush with Josh Brolin attached to star.
Stone describes the pic saying, “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.”
Any one that pays attention even in the slightest to things Stone has said about President Bush you already know he isn’t a fan. A simple search brings me to an interview with Stone from USA Today in which it is said:
Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President Bush Thursday, saying he has “set America back 10 years.” Stone added that he is “ashamed for my country” over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept. 11.
The article at Variety, though, says Stone isn’t out to make an anti-Bush polemic. His goal is to use seminal events in Bush’s life to explain how he came to power, using a structure comparable to The Queen.
If you ask me such a film is out of Stone’s reach because the guy has a lot to say at all times and he likes to use his movies to say those things. However, if things work out as planned the film may be in production by April.
On casting Brolin Stone said, “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.”
