I’m holding any serious thoughts about W, Ollie Stone’s upcoming dramatization of Dubya, until we see some actual footage. Stone has really fallen in my eyes and there’s nothing you can do to Bush he hasn’t already done to himself. But I’ll give Stone one thing: he’s casting pretty.

We’ve already got Josh Brolin as Bush, a move that seems entirely predicated on a stoned review of No Country For Old Men. Now the Hollywood Reporter has the stones to report that Elizabeth Banks is in talks to jump on board as Laura. I knew Oliver Stone had to be a Slither fan. Next up, Thandie Newton as Condie Rice and an arm wrestling match between Michael Chiklis and Seth Rogen for the role of Cheney.

Stone wrote the script with his Wall Street collaborator Stanley Weiser. The film begins shooting next month in Shreveport, LA.