Don’t know when ABC News got into the business of reviewing leaked screenplays à la Ain’t It Cool News, but they have a detailed dissection of the script for W, the biopic of President Bush that Oliver Stone (pictured) is about to start shooting. (Curiously, the article fails to mention the name of the guy who actually wrote the script, Stanley Weiser, whose credits include Stone’s Wall Street and that made-for-TV movie about Rudy Giuliani that starred James Woods.) Anyway, if ABC’s report is accurate, then the pic looks like it’s going to be a Freudian character study along the lines of Stone’s Nixon, but instead of blaming Mommy issues for the president’s warped character, this one will blame Poppy issues. Judging by the reported details of the screenplay, George W. spent his first 40 years rebelling against his overachieving dad, then mocked his dad for not ousting Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War (and cited that as the reason for George H.W. Bush’s election loss in 1992), then spent his own presidency trying to avenge Saddam Hussein’s reported attempt on his father’s life.
Interestingly, the one Bush insider ABC talks to regarding the script’s accuracy (former press secretary Ari Fleischer) suggests that the screenplay puts too much profanity in the president’s mouth (this despite Bush’s well-documented use of salty language) but otherwise seems to have no complaints about the film’s factuality. There’s also speculation included about whether the film will influence the election, though I doubt even someone who works as fast as Stone could shoot, wrap, edit, and release the film in just seven months.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Does W look like a film you’d want to see? Or do you think, by the time it comes out, people will be too focused on the next president to want to see a movie about this one?
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I think you need a good decade to review, and decide what, (if any) legacy anybody in that position leaves.
No interest at all — I’d really like to forget W ever existed.
Wasn’t it totally obvious that this was an April Fool’s joke?
I think they should make it as an “Ed Wood” kind of comedy drama.
Um…. no. I’ve spent the last 8 years living it, and will spend at least that long trying to forget it, so why waste my $12.50 on the movie?
It is way, WAY too early to be doing a “bio” film on Bush – or on any politician currently or recently in power.
Frankly, I’d say it takes about 100 years for the real truth about politicians to come out, because by then people don’t care anymore, and thus have stopped tainting the truth in their efforts to support or destroy the person.
They will be uncovering Bush-Cheney secrets for decades. I’ll buy a ticket, Oliver.
I’d be very surprised if this movie proved to be a hit.
Oliver Stone is one of the finest directors of the last three decades. I think the timing of his Bush biop couldn’t be better, as Bush will be leaving office in less than a year. Whatever film Stone will give us, I sincerely hope it embarasses and humiliates George W. Bush in ways that he could not imagine! It would be only the first step in getting back at him for the eight years of sh*t he’s put this country through!
This was a joke, right? April Fools? Please say yes.
I think people will see it if it shows off a side of Bush we haven’t seen, not necessarily a soft side of him (because most of us don’t think that exists) but a troubled or emotional side. That would be kind of interesting.