Would it really be that bad to have Josh Brolin as Commander-in-Chief?
Conspiracy theorists, paranoiacs, and read-between-the-liners! Get some sleep, eat right and exercise because you’re going to need to be in good shape and ready to deal when Oliver Stone’s Bush biopic comes out.
Yup, you read that right. Variety is reporting that Oliver Stone is shopping a (pre-strike written) script about the life of President Bush (that would be the current W, not the early ’90s H.W. model). And apparently hotter-than-hot Josh Brolin is set to play the leading role.
Stone knows that just mentioning his name will set off alarm bells amongst certain crowds who will expect that he’s just out to do a hatchet job. But he’s prepared for that. Look:
“It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to ‘Nixon,’ to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his skin,” Stone told Daily 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 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.”
Wow, Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Alexander the Great and George W. I don’t know if I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with that crew.
Chatting on some more, Stone spoke about how he didn’t want to talk abouthis personal opinion of Bush:
“I can’t give you that, because the filmmaker has to hide in the work,” Stone said. “Here, 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.”
(Here’s one thing that won’t be a surprise: a running time over two hours. Sigh.)
Stone’s prepared to shoot ASAP, with most of his crew from the now defunct Pinkville ready to sign on. Brolin is shooting Gus Van Sant’s Harvey Milk project, but should be ready to go by April.
Just a thought–wouldn’t some time lend perspective to the whole Bush presidency thing? Things that are happening now may look different ten years into the future. Seems to me like this could just be a rather shallow “how he made it to the top” story, with no real insight.
