Oliver Stone......?!

[Alexandro]

this could be really cool.

[SiliasRuby]

I would do anything to work on this project.

[MacGuffin]

Universal to Distribute Oliver Stone's 'Savages'
The filmmaker has been slowly putting together the acting pieces for his latest pic, an adaptation of a Don Winslow novel.
Source: THR

Universal has closed a deal to distribute Savages, the latest project from Oliver Stone. The filmmaker has been slowly putting together the acting pieces for his latest pic, an adaptation of a Don Winslow novel, which made it attractive for studios to toss their hats into the distribution ring. Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), Taylor Kitsch (Battleship), Benicio del Toro and Salma Hayek are in various stages of discussions to board the project. Stone and Shane Salerno wrote the script, which follows two laid-back beach-bum marijuana dealers run afoul a Mexican cartel run by a ruthless female boss who, in order to force her competition to submit, kidnaps the duo's mutual girlfriend. Jennifer Lawrence was in talks to play the girlfriend, names O or Ophelia, but bowed out when she landed the lead role in Lionsgate's Hunger Games. Stone is eying a June shoot.

[Gold Trumpet]

John Travolta, Uma Thurman And Blake Lively Join 'Savages' Cast
Source: Deadline


EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Stone is putting together a killer cast for Savages, the drama based on Don Winslow's bestselling novel.  Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion of John Travolta and Uma Thurman, as the two actors are in talks to join the ensemble cast.  Also joining is  is The Town's Blake Lively, who beat out a group of young actresses to play the role of O. Travolta will play Dennis, a burned out DEA agent, and Thurman will play O's mom, Paqu.

They join Taylor Kitsch, already set to play who'll play the role of former Navy SEAL Chon (Kitsch has already begun training with the real SEALs); Aaron Johnson, who plays the role of Ben;  Salma Hayek, who'll play the role of Mexican cartel queen-pin Elena; and Benicio Del Toro, who plays the vicious cartel enforcer Lado. The script is by Winslow and Shane Salerno. There are several more roles to go.

Universal Pictures is financing and distributing the film, which begins production in early July. Savages focuses on the relationship between best friend Laguna pot growers Chon and Ben, who live a cozy life with their trippy galpal, O. Their pot is so good that the Mexican cartel tries to coerce them into working for the cartel. When they refuse, the cartel kidnaps O and charges a heavy ransom to get her back. The growers pay the ransom by covertly ripping off the cartel's own shipments, a most dangerous game.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/john-travolta-uma-thurman-and-blake-lively-join-savages-cast/

[MacGuffin]

Oliver Stone Reveals Sidney Lumet & Al Pacino Nearly Made 'Platoon'
Source: The Playlist

For director Oliver Stone, "Platoon" would mark the beginning of the meatiest part of the director's career. The Vietnam film, the first in a loose trilogy (followed by "Born On The Fourth Of July" and "Heaven & Earth"), made a star out of its young lead Charlie Sheen, and it went to the Oscars that with year with eight nominations, walking away with four wins including Best Picture and Best Director (not to mention that Stone's other film that year, "Salvador," also earned two nods). It would be Stone's second Oscar (he won for writing "Midnight Express" in 1979) and it established the writer/director as a major voice. But as he tells it now, he nearly didn't make the film. In an interview with EW about the film's 25th anniversary BluRay release, Stone reveals that a powerhouse acting and directing duo seriously considered making "Platoon" in the 1970s. "It was written in '76 and was almost made then by Sidney Lumet and [Al] Pacino. Then there was a period in '84 when Michael Cimino was going to produce it and Emilio Estevez was going to play the role, actually. [Kevin] Costner passed on it, I believe, because his brother had been in Vietnam," Stone said, confirming that Costner and Mickey Rourke were at one time in the running for Barnes, the role played by Tom Berenger. So why didn't it happen? "The '76 version was just not considered upbeat enough. It was too realistic, which is why Sidney Lumet liked it. So who knows? And then I wrote 'Midnight Express,' which was my big breakthrough in Hollywood," Stone explained. "And at that point, 'Platoon' was stashed away in a closet because no one wanted to make a realistic movie. And then you had films like 'Apocalypse Now' and 'The Deer Hunter.' And the feeling was our moment had passed. So I was sad about it —really heartbroken. I forgot about the script for a while, thinking it would never get made. And then Michael Cimino [who also directed 'The Deer Hunter'] said I should bring 'Platoon' back and he would produce it. This was in '84. And I thought it was going to happen, but [producer] Dino DeLaurentiis f—ed us over, big time." How did he get fucked over? "He was only willing to go so far. The script was mine and he hadn't paid for it, really. He considered it his, but he hadn't paid. We had to threaten to go to court to get the movie back. It's a miracle it eventually got made. It's also a miracle that it was received well because it was supposed to be past due. We'd had 'Rambo' and a bunch of other Vietnam movies. And the thinking was no one wanted another Vietnam movie." Well, while the pairing of Lumet and Pacino on a Vietnam movie is something we'll have to leave to a parallel movie universe, everything certainly turned out well when Stone finally took the film. Check out the EW interview for more bits of info about the film including the apocalyptic draft of the script he wrote in 1969 that involves the underworld that he sent to Jim Morrison as well as other trivia, including the fact that Keanu Reeves turned down the movie because he thought it was too violent. Huh.

[Robyn]

Never been a big fan before, but I just saw Dancer in the Dark for the first time, and it was one of the best films i've seen in a very long time. Also saw Dogville and Breaking the Waves a couple of days ago and loved them both. He is a fascinating filmmaker to say the least.

I still can't begin to imagine the ego that it would take to even consider, let alone actually going through with, adding "Von" to your own last name.

He added it when he attended film school, just for the sake of provocation (that says it all, I guess).

I bet his film teachers loved him..

[Robyn]

opps! first time lost on xixax.......

what's the direction to the von trier thread?

[squints]

Man i bet you just really got GT's hopes up.

[Robyn]

yeah, I bet I did

sorry for hiljacking your thread, GT

[Stefen]

Let's keep bumping it until he lol's.

[Reel]

what was the last good film stone has made, U-turn? I never saw it. Definitely hasn't had anything going for him in the 2000's. I've kinda grown to despise him as a person, he seems so pretentious

[socketlevel]

Wall street 2 and W. were both good movies.

But his last great movie is any given sunday, so ya it's been 15 years since i've loved something he's done.

[Alexandro]

yeah, but before any given sunday he had a spectacular, really, SPECTACULAR run: Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the 4th of July, , The Doors, JFK, Heaven & Earth, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, U-Turn and Any Given Sunday.

All those films, wether you like them or not, wether you think they're pretentious or whatever, are filled with intelligence, top notch craftsmanship and at the same time using experimental techniques in both editing and cinematography (some of bob richardson's best work), a long list of brilliant actors all giving incredible performances not once but usually two or three different times (just of the top of my head there's tom cruise, charlie sheen, willem daffoe, jim morrison, meg ryan, kevin costner, tommy lee jones, joe pesci, sissy spaceck, donald sutherland, val kilmer, james woods, woody harrelson, juliette lewis, robert downey jr., tom sizemore, anthony hopkins, joan allen, bob hoskins, sean penn, billy bob thornton, claire danes, joaquin phoenix, dennis quaid, pacino...fuuuck), etc...This guy was on roll and it's no wonder he's still exhausted.

Also, W. was pretty good too. I'm always amazed at people that say they love cinema and fail to recognize what a major talent this guy is.

[Gold Trumpet]

Hah, definitely a lol from the outset. Especially considering the original mis-post was for two films I think are terrible. That juxtaposition was right.

Then it turned into the usual casual condemnation about Oliver Stone. Especially considering all Reelist could do was say a good recent Stone film was one he had never seen. Since Stone doesn't rate high in the "respectability" factor, it happens a lot. People objectify Stone films to be what they aren't so criticism is easy. Some people call his allusions obvious or heavy handed when that's the point so it can collide against all the other allusions. Most criticism just misses a lot of the boat of what Stone is actually doing. Still, everyone (especially me) is guilty of criticizing films too simplistically sometimes so I don't take it with any real strain.

For me, Any Given Sunday is very good and W. and Alexander Revisited are great films. His late 1980s and early 1990s stretch was a great run, but there are elements to both those newer films that are developments over some of his more acclaimed films. I'm not implying total development, but he wanted his stories to take on more multiple factors of storytelling interest that some of his earlier films just lacked. I've written about it a number of times so I don't want to regurgitate ideas.

[socketlevel]

I saw one of the revisted cuts, i don't know if it was the 2nd or 3rd cut however. It was much better than the theatrical but not great by my tastes.  which of the two recuts do you mean GT? I'll check it out.

JFK is in my top 10 of all time. It's one of those movies that impresses me on all fronts. I can watch it over and over and over. The speach made by costner at the end, when he looks directly into the camera and says "it's up to you" still gives me goosebumps. It is a masterpiece.

Alexandro i agree with about 75% of the titles you mentioned. I'm not a huge fan of heaven & Earth and the doors. both are good movies but not great. I still haven't seen salvador.