Posted by Matt Holmes. Last modified on April 9th, 2008 at 12:20am

Verdict on Oliver Stone’s W biopic from Bush experts…

I know I keep talking about Oliver Stone’s next movie W but I’m so fascinated by it on more than one level.

The first being that knowing Stone - George Bush is in for one hell of a butchering come November when this movie is released. Those of you who stayed away from the politically driven “war on terror” movies of 2007 won’t be able to stay aware from this one. Seeing Dub-Ya go down is as much box office gold as seeing DiCaprio & Winslet go down on the Titanic.

_george-bush.jpg

But on the other level is one of 2007’s best breakthrough actors - Josh Brolin.

After such acclaimed roles in No Country For Old Men and American Gangster, he has surprisingly agreed to go into the deep end and play Bush in a film where his character is going to be portrayed as both incompetent and a joke. Just what does he get from such a grilling?

Anyway the point of this post is that The Hollywood Reporter have a nice three page spread detailing the thoughts of many Bush biographers who have read the script for Stone’s movie (draft circa October 07 but it’s thought to have gone through two seperate drafts since then) and wanted to throw their two cents into the hat!

Robert Draper, author of the Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush said…

“It leaves you with the impression that the White House is run as a fraternity house with no reverence for hierarchy, the office itself or for the implications of policy…Everybody calling everybody else nicknames and chatting about whether to go to war as if they were chatting about how to bet on a football game really misses the mark of how many White Houses, including this one, are run.”

Jacob Weisberg of The Bush Tragedy

“His saying he is going to be fair to Bush is like Donald Trump saying he is going to be modest,”

The writer of the W script Stanley Weiser, who also wrote Wall Street for Oliver Stone responded with this…

“I have no comment other than the fact that I have read 17 books on Bush.”

The trades say the general consensus of the film is that it contains an awful lot of inaccuracy and is more of a carciature of the Bush administration and is a blatant attack on the President, in some part to create enough conterversary for a good box office return.

Said conterversary helped Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 to no end.

Again I ask you - what is Josh Brolin getting out of this film? And as you as excited as me to see how this turns out?

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Categories: Josh-Brolin, Movie News, Oliver-Stone, W

4 Comments »

  1. Let Aaron Sorkin write the script. Hell, he DID the last season of West Wing.

    Comment by JaySmack | April 9, 2008

  2. I’m not really excited for it. I see that it’s not meant to taken has a historical type of film and the fact that it’s coming out right now instead of years later or when he dies, is a good enough clue for me. I’ll watch it anyway.

    Comment by Lencho | April 9, 2008

  3. Josh Brolin probably just wants to get a kick out of playing George W. 
    Sad thing is, everyone who has a role in that damn movie is going to be laughed at.  and not a good laugh either.  WHO THE HELL IS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS? 
    I love how Oliver thinks because so many people are anti-bush, itll supposedly bring in LOTS OF MONEY.  christ, is oliver turning over the drama leaf and starting to make comediies now?  this is just pathetic…

    Comment by ALK | April 9, 2008

  4. No film could sum up the absolute abomination that is George W. Bush. Whether it’s accurate or not, I think it’s always nice to see potshots being taken in public arenas at Bush and his admin cronies.
    I’m not really sure how I feel about Stone right now and can’t say for certain whether this will be a credible, honest, accurate effort at documenting an individual well worth documenting. The best way to really bash Bush is parody; a Life of Brian-style swipe at the ‘War on Terror’ would be more appealing and likely to be more authentic than the apologist/unconvincing/insincere pseiudo-serious Middle East-centric dramas that Hollywood has pumped out lately.

    Comment by James Clayton | April 9, 2008

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