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W. the Film
Director: Oliver Stone
Release Date: October 17, 2008
Starring: Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Ioan Gruffudd, Richard Dreyfuss, Thandie Newton, Scott Glenn, Jeffrey Wright, Jason Ritter, Toby Jones, Jennifer Sipes, Noah Wyle
Language: English
Country: United States
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“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.” ~ Oliver Stone
W. is a 2008 biographical film based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. The film was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush. Stone has compared his goal for W. to the approaches of The Queen (2006) and his own Nixon (1995). Filming began on May 12, 2008 in Louisiana with the release date being set for October 17, 2008. The MPAA rated the film PG-13 for “language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images.”
Director Oliver Stone was originally attached to direct Pinkville, a film about the Army’s investigation of the My Lai Massacre, but development was canceled due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and actor Bruce Willis pulling out of the film three weeks before shooting was set to start. As a result, United Artists shut the production down.
Stone moved on to direct a film about the life and presidency of George W. Bush, shopping a script that had been written before the strike by Stanley Weiser, who had co-written Wall Street (1987) with Stone. Weiser and Stone read 17 books as part of their research for the script, and worked on the project for a year before venturing to film Pinkville. Stone has admitted that he and Weiser had to speculate on some dialogue: “You take all the facts and take the spirit of the scene and make it accurate to what you think happened”.
W. is being financed independently, with Chinese, German, and Australian funds. Lions Gate Entertainment is distributing the film. Though Stone has criticized Bush for the administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, the director said that he was not looking to make an “anti-Bush polemic”. Stone compared his goal of the film to that of The Queen (2006), wanting to trace “seminal events in Bush’s life”. According to the director, “It’s a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to Nixon (1995), to give a sense of what it’s like to be in his skin. But if Nixon was a symphony, this is more like a chamber piece, and not as dark in tone.”
The film, originally titled Bush, was re-titled W. Filming began on May 12, 2008 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was still filming as of July 14, 2008. The film will be released on October 17, 2008, before the presidential election. The film’s producers are reportedly planning to run TV spots for the film opposite John McCain’s ads this fall. On May 13, 2008 the New York Post published excerpts from an early draft of the script. The column, written by Cindy Adams, stated “Pro-Bushies will hate it, antis will love it.”
Stone has described the structure of W. as a three-act film starting with Bush as a young man “with a missed life”, followed by his transformation and “an assertion of will which was amazingly powerful” as he came out from his father’s shadow, and finally his invasion of Iraq. There will be dramatic scenes showing the positive side of the president, according to Stone. Early “behind-the-scenes” footage was released on Access Hollywood’s website, showing multiple camera angles of the filming of the Mission Accomplished speech scene.
Cast:
- Josh Brolin as George W. Bush: Josh Brolin spent months working on the president’s distinctive vocal style, calling hotels in Texas and talking to the people at the front desk, listening to their accents. The actor has also watched video of Bush walking. Brolin said, “It changes over the years, how he walks in his 30s, how he walks in foreign lands, before 9/11 and afterward. People hold their emotions in their bodies. They can’t fake it. Especially him.”
- Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush: Elizabeth Banks has said that she will not do an impression of the First Lady Laura Bush. “I just want to honor her voice, her stillness, and her hairstyle”.
- Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice
- Jesse Bradford as Thatcher, a college buddy of Bush
- James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush
- Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney: Before Dreyfuss agreed to play Dick Cheney, director Stone was interested in Robert Duvall for the role, but he turned it down.
- Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld
- Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush
- Ioan Gruffudd as Tony Blair
- Jason Ritter as Jeb Bush
- Noah Wyle as Donald Evans
- Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell
- Bruce McGill as George Tenet
- Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer
- Toby Jones as Karl Rove
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