Q: A natural fit for you would be George [W. Bush]. With the father, the son, the war and conversations with God, it sounds like something right out of a movie. Is that something that might interest you?
Oliver Stone: (Big smile) Yes. Very much so. (The room echoes with laughter and scattered applause.)
Q: How soon might you get around to this?
Stone: Soon, soon.
It’s way too early to do anything with this brief exchange from today’s press junket for Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut (due out tomorrow, September 18th, on Blu-Ray), but it was certainly more than just an off-the-cuff remark. I was sitting two seats away from Stone, and the grin that greeted that question was one of "Oh, you better believe I have plans for this guy."
Whether it’s an historical fiction in the vein of Nixon or an interview/documentary like Comandante (in which case, good luck getting the requisite access), the idea of modern cinema’s foremost agitator taking on the most reviled President of our lifetime is undeniably enticing. My colleague who asked the above question is absolutely right: this is goldmine territory for Stone. If one buys into the notion that Bush’s worldview is perniciously blinkered by religious fanaticism, there’s the stuff of big-canvas drama in the life of this strange little man. Or it could make for grotesque satire (which is what Stone believes he delivered with the screenplay for Brian De Palma’s Scarface; having watched the film again the other night, I tend to agree with him).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Stone is currently prepping his My Lai Massacre project, Pinkville, for a December start date; the soonest he might get to w (my title, not his) is late next year. While I might have mixed feelings about most of Stone’s oeuvre (though JFK is an irrefutable masterpiece), this could be a big, beautiful bombshell of a motion picture. I hope he follows up on what, for now, has merely beem intimated.
The full transcript of today’s interview will be up in a bit. Also on the way in an interview with Wolfgang Petersen re: his 196-minute Director’s Cut of Troy.