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Ah, Oliver Stone. He’s taken on JFK and Nixon. He’s covered wars and terrorist attacks. He’s tried his hand at Wall Street and ancient Macedonia. And now he’s scrambling to create what seems to be one great big mess of a movie about President Bush before he leaves the Oval Office.
In case you haven’t already heard, Stone’s currently filming his next movie, W., and he’s pushing to get it out by October. And while Stone’s Alexander made my head hurt — and my critic friend, John, received death threats for publically and mercilessly panning World Trade Center (a movie that’s been sitting on my shelf for nearly two years, yet I haven’t even bothered to watch it) — W. appears to be building up to be Stone’s biggest monstrosity yet.
W. stars Josh Brolin as President Bush and Elizabeth Banks as his wife, Laura. Actually, a whole bunch of talented actors have hopped on board. But, then again, Oliver Stone is Oliver Stone, no matter how hit-or-miss he can be. There’s always that chance of a hit, right? So W. includes Thandie Newton as Condoleezaa Rice, Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, James Cromwell as Bush Sr., and Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer. Yes, Rob Corddry. The guy from…well, any corny comedy you’ve seen in the last five years.
Last night, as we were carpooling to a screening, Neil Miller of Film School Rejects alerted me to the fact that parts of the script had leaked — and that the whole thing sounded like a really bad comedy. So I did a little searching around this morning, and I found a bit about it from the New York Post. And Neil’s right. It appears as though the film is one big, ridiculous parody, filled with wise cracks and rednecks and poop jokes. After reading the Post‘s article, I wouldn’t be surprised if Will Ferrell showed up as some top-ranking, practical-joking Senator who loves to streak through the steets of Washington, D.C.
Now, you can say what you want about good ol’ W. You can love him, or you can hate him. But you’ve got to question Stone’s timing a bit. In October, with the election just weeks away, will anyone really care to watch a big, “controversial” Oliver Stone movie about a soon-to-be lame duck? Aren’t we all moving on? At that point, if you ask me, George W. will be the least of anyone’s concerns. And while I know that my pal John never tires of a good Dick Cheney joke, personally, I’ve heard ’em all, and they’re just not that funny anymore. So do I really want to sit through what could very well be three hours of bad Bush jokes, all strung together? Nope. Ten years from now, maybe. Now, definitely not.
Ah, when will Oliver Stone learn? If you want to air out your frustrations and tell a few poop jokes, Ollie, just post them on YouTube like the rest of the world.
