W.

[Gold Trumpet]

There are pics online where Cromwell is donning Bush's famous thick glasses and he looks like the former President a lot more. I personally don't care that there is little resemblance. Stone proved with Nixon that it isn't important and all that matters is whether the actors can capture the character. That being said, Cromwell looks to be a good choice.

[pete]

I got pretty annoyed when they showed the trailer for W before Pineapple Express, and you have all these cool san francisco liberal kids hooting and hollering during the trailer simply because people looked like the people they played.  They were actually applauding and laughing at the resemblance.

[jtm]

There are pics online where Cromwell is donning Bush's famous thick glasses and he looks like the former President a lot more. I personally don't care that there is little resemblance. Stone proved with Nixon that it isn't important and all that matters is whether the actors can capture the character. That being said, Cromwell looks to be a good choice.

i've know the pic you're referring to, and yes he does show a resemblance there. but only there.

and i do think looks are important when you're making a film about real people who actually exist. especially of this magnitude. and like i said before, it seems that this was something they were going for. i mean, it's erie how much some of these actors look like their counterparts... but bush sr sticks out like a sore thumb to me.

i completely understand where you're coming from when you say the actors don't need to look like the people they're playing as long as they accurately portray their essence. i just happen to disagree with you there.. hell, oliver originally wanted kevin costner to play jim morrison in his doors movie. how well would that have worked out?!

[Gold Trumpet]

Does Scott Glenn really look like Donald Rumsfeld? Does Ellen Burstyon really look like Barbara Bush? Or what about the actor who plays Tony Blair? I don't think the filmmakers were going for exact replications at all. In fact I think a few of those actors look less like their counterparts than James Cromwell does to his, especially the Blair actor. 

I understand the Kevin Costner point, but he would have been wrong for the role no matter what he looked like. I believe he is a good actor, but he lacks the personality to fit into a Jim Morrison incarnation. This has nothing to do with his looks. Josh Brolin looks as much like George Bush straight as Kevin Costner does Jim Morrison. Changes could have been done to make him resemble Morrison more, but it never would have been right.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, but theater has already established that physical resemblance to real people matters very little. They have hundreds of years of history of representing that tradition. Oliver Stone showed it worked in film with Nixon so I don't think it's that big of a deal. A moot complaint, I would say.

[SiliasRuby]

especially the Blair actor. 

His name is Ioan Gruffudd: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0344435/ Credits include King Arthur, Black Hawk Down, Fantastic Four, and The TV Set.

[MacGuffin]

Director Oliver Stone talks about why he made "W."
Source: Los Angeles Times

Director Oliver Stone spoke to a star-studded audience last night at a special screening of "W.," his controversial and much-anticipated biopic of President George W. Bush.   

Before the screening in West Los Angeles, Stone spoke to the glitterati about the journalistic sources for the film's story and why he felt compelled to make this film. In the audience were the film's star, Josh Brolin, his father, James Brolin, and stepmom Barbra Streisand, as well as Richard Dreyfuss, Al Pacino, Noah Wyie, Jodie Foster, James Woods, Paul Haggis, Sid Ganis, Brett Ratner, Bill Maher, Ellen Barkin, Casey Affleck, Ed Zwick, James Mangold and Maria Bello.

"First, let me tell you that this is based on a true story, despite what many of you may believe," Stone said. "We did a lot of research to bring to light some of that murky stuff that has taken a long time to come out. In that vein, I have to thank all the investigative journalists, the dozen or so that really broke the ice, including Bob Woodward, David Corn, Michael Isikoff, Ron Suskind, Jane Mayer, Barton Gelman, Frank Rich. So many of them worked very hard, and that raw body of work was the basis from which to simplify and condense into our movie."

As well as dramatizing the agenda behind the Iraq war, and why no WMD were ever found, Stone's film deals with the complex rivalry between George W. Bush and his disapproving father, former President George H.W. Bush.

It also portrays W.'s wild, unfocused youth, his failures and ambitions, and his conversion to 'born again' Christianity, a move that ultimately helped get him elected as governor of Texas and later, as POTUS.

Dreyfuss is chilling as VP Dick Cheney, while Thandie Newton is transformed into a gawky, glowering Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. As W., Brolin gives an astonishing, layered and -- many attendees suggested -- Oscar-worthy performance.

But even Stone admits that there's much more about George W. Bush to be learned.

"I think there's more to come out, but I think there's enough here to start," Stone said. "And in that vein, I have to ask, we had to ask ourselves why we made this movie. That question leads to where we are as a country and where are we going. And a large part of the answer lies here, in the character of George W. Bush."

At the post-cocktail party, Stone, Dreyfus and Brolin were congratulated and thanked for making a film that was called "astonishing" and "terrifying."

"One of the most frightening films I have ever seen," said one film producer.

The timing for Stone's film could not be better, as we face yet another presidential election in which religious beliefs will again play a heightened role in deciding who ultimately runs this country.

As one party-goer noted, "The problem with 'W.' is that the people who really need to see this film probably won't.

[MacGuffin]

Extended Trailer here.



Fact-Checking Oliver Stone's 'W.' — Is The Film True To Life?
Did President Bush get a girl pregnant? Does he love 'Cats'? We separate fact from fiction.
By Larry Carroll; MTV
   
Over the last few elections, a new post-debate tradition has sprung up as fact-check teams jump on air mere moments after the candidates say goodbye, eager to tell us why candidate X won't save us as much money as he claims, or candidate Y is lying about his voting record. After seeing next week's Oliver Stone film "W.," you might wish those guys were standing in the theater lobby, eager to walk you to your car.

Although the film proudly walks the line of bipartisanship, several scenes depicting our current president contain background details sure to raise some eyebrows. Did George W. Bush really once get a girl pregnant? Did he drive his car into a garage door in a fit of anger? And is his favorite piece of theater really one of the goofiest musicals of all time?

Below are several assertions presented in "W.," as well as the real-life facts.

W. Once Got a Woman Pregnant

Film: A young, still irresponsible Bush (Josh Brolin) gets caught up in a relationship with a woman named "Fran" (Marley Shelton), promises to marry her, then jumps up onto a bar with her to dance in celebration. Later, W. goes to his father for help, and George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell) says he'll "take care" of it.

Fact: The rumor has haunted Bush for decades but most closely resembles an allegation made by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, who claimed in 2000 to have uncovered a 1971 relationship between Bush and an old flame. Flynt has alleged that the pro-life Bush arranged for an abortion, which at the time was illegal in Texas; the president has not commented either way.

W. Loves "Cats"

Film: When Bush gets down over the state of the country, Laura (Elizabeth Banks) cheers him up by saying that she'll get tickets to his favorite play. In early screenings, Los Angeles audiences have been chuckling over the revelation that it's "Cats," the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical often viewed as something less than high art.

Fact: " 'Cats' was one of his favorite plays," Stone insists of a fact uncovered by his research team. "I think this movie is better than 'Cats,' but I don't think he's going to see this." In 2006, Bush paid tribute to Webber at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors ceremony.

Rumsfeld Doodled During Staff Meetings

Film: While Bush's advisers are discussing their 9/11 response and coining the infamous "Axis of Evil" moniker, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (Scott Glenn) is obliviously sketching a cartoon of Condoleezza Rice, who is sitting nearby.

Fact: "Whether he doodled Rice is an issue, but he doodled," Stone admitted. "He would express his arrogance and indifference [often]. He hated meetings with people he did not see at his level, and he was famous for his doodling, among other things."

W. Regretted Trading Sammy Sosa

Film: During a flashback conversation with his father in 1990, Bush cites his approval of the trade involving baseball star Sammy Sosa as an example of his poor judgment.

Fact: Although Bush did allow the trade of Sosa (who would go on to hit 609 home runs) while serving as owner of the Texas Rangers, the future slugger didn't become an above-average player until 1993. In 1990, Bush would have likely been proud of unloading a man who would only hit .233 that season.

Jack Hawk Loves the Administration

Film: During scenes depicting George W. Bush's notorious "Mission Accomplished" speech, Stone cuts to a program called "Spinball" hosted by a right-wing, full-of-praise talking head with the too-hilarious-to-be-real name Jack Hawk.

Fact: "It's a condensed character of the American reporters," the director said, denying that fake names were used because Bush-friendly channels like Fox News may have been unwilling to help Stone's movie. "[It was the way] many of them were at the time."

W. Crashes His Car

Film: After stumbling during an early campaign, a furious Bush rams his vehicle into a garage door, frightening Laura.

Fact: According to a 2000 USA Today article, "After a few speeches, he asked [Laura] — coming up the driveway on the way home from one — how his delivery was going over. Terrible, said the forthright wife. George W. drove his Pontiac Bonneville right into the garage wall."

[MacGuffin]

Throwing Incaution to the Wind, Stone Paints Bush
By RICHARD L. BERKE; New York Times

IMAGINE these fantastical sequences from "W.," the Oliver Stone portrayal of President George W. Bush that opens on Friday: The president is not alone with his dogs when he chokes on a pretzel and tumbles from the sofa; Saddam Hussein is in the White House family quarters with him. Later Mr. Bush flies over Baghdad on a magic carpet as the bombs rain down. And finally Mr. Hussein returns for another cameo, this time to shout insults at the president and his father.

These depictions would hardly be a reach for a director who is fond of monkeying with history. In "JFK" Mr. Stone suggested that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a cabal of gay anti-Communists. In "Nixon" he made that president so epically loathsome that even his Irish setter turned on him.

But "W." contains no airborne Bush; Mr. Stone cut the scene. And the pretzel incident has no Iraqi dictator, only the two first dogs, Barney and Spot.

"It was wacky stuff that at the end of the day took us out of the movie," Mr. Stone said in a recent interview in a back corner of the restaurant at the Royalton Hotel in Manhattan. "We wanted to focus on the mind-set of this man. We don't change anything in his true story. Don't have to, because it's a great story. Dickens would do it. Mark Twain would write a great book. This guy who is basically a bum becomes president of the United States."

The surprise about "W." is that its left-wing creator made a movie that is not so much operatic or hysterical as utterly plausible.

Yes, there are soapy oversimplifications and embellishments (and some hallucinatory camera work involving baseball stadiums and showdowns in the Oval Office) that Bush loyalists will seize on as reprehensible distortions.

But all in all, the straightforwardness of "W." suggests that Mr. Stone set out to make a critical biography but was somehow spooked. The director who has built a career on vowing to unearth hidden truths made a movie that feels more familiar than revelatory.

For all of his fascination with what he calls Mr. Bush's demons, Mr. Stone has demons of his own. After "JFK" and "Nixon" he was ridiculed by historians, journalists and partisans for, as he put it, "brainwashing the young." Maybe now he is chastened, not wanting critics to dismiss the movie as another hatchet job that would scare off audiences.

Did he excise the Saddam Hussein dream scene, for instance, out of fear that it would cost the movie some credibility?

"Yes, I think so," he said.

As a result Mr. Stone retreats to the most familiar, widely accepted aspects of Mr. Bush's biography, gliding through the stations of the Bush cross that pop up in countless books and articles, from his fraternity hazing to his mano-a-mano fight with his father to his struggle with alcohol and his road to religious redemption to his decision to invade Iraq.

So faithful is this rendering that a scene of Governor Bush behind his imposing desk in Austin, Tex., stirred a reporter's memories of what it was like to interview Mr. Bush in that very setting nearly a decade ago. The Bush then, with his boots on the desk, his playful sparring with aides and his conversation sprinkled with the eager invocation of "God almighty," was uncannily similar to the one played by Josh Brolin.

But there are commercial and artistic risks to hewing so closely to the record. Given that his subject is the most dissected sitting president in history, his two terms picked over by insider memoirs and the never-ending chattering of the 24/7 media world, many viewers will want and expect Mr. Stone to whip up something fresh. Then there is the complication for Mr. Stone of basing a movie on a president presiding over an economic collapse and two wars. John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were long gone before Mr. Stone tackled them in his epics.

Asked to explain what audiences will learn about the president in "W.," Mr. Stone was more vague than provocative. "I think you understand George Bush much better when you see the movie," he said. "After two hours you walk in his path. You understand his worldview and how he got there and how he became the man he was."

Mr. Stone has never succeeded at divorcing his powerful point of view from his filmmaking, and he readily acknowledges that he hopes his $25 million movie — to be released less than three weeks before the presidential election — will somehow help Barack Obama, though he is not sure how.

To make its pre-election release date, Mr. Stone completed "W." in 46 days, much faster than most movies, after he found himself with some free time once United Artists backed out of another film he was set to direct, "Pinkville," about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. ("There's really no better time to release a politically themed film than right now," said Tom Ortenberg, Lionsgate's president for theatrical film. "We all thought it would be a question mark as to the level of interest after the election, or certainly after the inauguration.")

With this film, Mr. Stone — a decorated Vietnam veteran who directed "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July" — intended to focus attention on how Mr. Bush bequeathed us the Iraq war. "It's breathtaking," he said, "to go through your lifetime and see the second set of mistakes again." (The movie doesn't address 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina.)

Mr. Stone's distaste for the president rears itself even when Mr. Stone is reminded that they are both 62 and followed in their fathers' footsteps by enrolling at Yale. "I got A's," he said. "He was a C student, and I think you cannot overlook that. I don't think he's a fundamentally educated man." (He neglected to note that he, not Mr. Bush, was a Yale dropout.) And speaking of the Bush name, he said, "I don't think the name can recover."

Such remarks will only fuel Republican rebukes that the movie is an anti-Bush vendetta. Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's political guru, who is played in a bit role by Toby Jones (whose last star turn was as Truman Capote), said the trailer was such a caricature that he'll never see the movie.

"I don't think they made any attempt to have this conform to any reality except that which exists in the cerebral cortex of Oliver Stone, which is a brain with only a functioning left side," Mr. Rove said. "This is a political film that is an attempt to influence an election that is about four years too late."

Told of that comment, Mr. Stone said Mr. Rove would enjoy the movie because Mr. Bush "looks good in many ways." While he considers Mr. Rove "one of the most devious men," he gave him "the benefit of the doubt," he said, though adding that he wished Mr. Jones "had been taller like Rove, and fatter."

Despite Mr. Stone's politics, there is room for some nuance in his portrayal of Mr. Bush. A lunch with Vice President Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss) starts off with the makings of a Stone mockery: Mr. Bush seems the impatient simpleton who does not want to bother reading a three-page memo about authorizing "enhanced interrogation techniques" of detainees. "Only three pages — good!" he says. But Mr. Bush makes clear he is no stooge.

Bush family dynamics are so oversimplified that at every turn Mr. Bush's father (James Cromwell) seems to be wagging his finger at his son for besmirching the family name. Mr. Stone would have you believe that Mr. Bush ran for governor of Texas, and then president, only to fix Daddy's mistake of not taking out Saddam Hussein once and for all — and to show his parents that their preference for his brother Jeb was misplaced. Still, the Oedipal tensions are not a complete concoction; George and Barbara Bush hardly concealed their amazement that George W., the Bush black sheep, became a governor before Jeb.

During the interview earlier this month Mr. Stone was so determined to make the case that his movie was faithful to the facts that he brought a stack of boldfaced annotations and references to books and articles about Mr. Bush (some reputable; others, not so much). But in resisting most of his fanciful impulses, he has ceded to others the job of delving more deeply (though more subjectively) into the psyches of the Bushes.

In her new novel, "American Wife," for example, Curtis Sittenfeld let her imagination run free through the mind and heart of Laura Bush but had to do so by making her a technically fictional character — by renaming her (as Alice Blackwell) and relocating her childhood (Wisconsin suburbs for Texas). At the story's end Alice is in full-throated rebellion — privately — over the Iraq war. Accurate? Doubtful. Insightful? Maybe. Engaging and provocative? Yes.

But Mr. Stone described himself and the screenwriter, Stanley Weiser, as so inundated with compelling "raw data" that he had no reason to manufacture any. He even cut out a scene (true story) where Mr. Bush was flying a faltering Cessna over Texas with his friend Don Evans, who was later commerce secretary. Who remembers reading about that?

"People don't know a lot about him," Mr. Stone said. "That presidency was veiled and hidden from the public view for three years. Remember, there were very few press conferences. There were staged rallies that very few people were invited to."

In the next breath Mr. Stone undermines his notion of Bush the phantom president by reeling off all the books written by Bush insiders turned outsiders. "We have so much information now," he said. Among others, he cited books by Paul H. O'Neill, who was the treasury secretary; Richard A. Clarke, the counterterrorist adviser; and journalists including Bob Woodward, Ron Suskind, Jane Mayer, James Risen and Bill Minutaglio.

His challenge, Mr. Stone said, was to go deeper into the character of Mr. Bush. He even tosses in some satire, like the president's senior aides trying in vain to tag after him on a brisk hike at his Texas ranch.

"I hope you laughed a bit," he said. "We did keep it at a tonality that was lighter because he's not Richard Nixon. He's not gloomy, paranoid and dark like Nixon."

Some will appreciate that Mr. Stone has abandoned his polarizing, facts-be-damned tangents for a bit of lightness. Larry King, for one, assured his viewers the other night that audiences of all political persuasions would like "W." That's just the endorsement studio chiefs love to hear.

But it's a departure for a director who has always been a provocateur who prides himself on creating movies "that make you think."

Which is, then, the final question about the film. Can a fictional "W." inspire a re-examination of the life and times of George W. Bush, even as the nation finds itself captivated by Sarah Palin — and Tina Fey?

[Gold Trumpet]

It is opening wide this week. Will hit 2,000 screens.

[Kal]

I dont know if its the whole election frenzy but I'm super excited about this film and I cant wait to see it Friday...

[matt35mm]

I decided to go see this at the London Film Festival.  It'll still be a week after you guys get to see it, but a couple of weeks before it opens in the UK.

Looking forward to it!

[cinemanarchist]

source: hollywood-elsewhere

[modage]

i've seen those all over the place.  pretty neat idea, fake street art on the real posters.

[MacGuffin]

[MacGuffin]

Just a Minute With: Oliver Stone on George "W." Bush

Director Oliver Stone has never shied from controversy in his 30 years making movies, tackling issues ranging from the Vietnam War in movies like "Platoon" to violence and society in "Natural Born Killers".

A three-time Oscar winner, Stone's latest subject is President George W. Bush. His movie "W." opens in the United States on Friday, less than three weeks before Americans elect their next president on November 4.

Oliver Stone, 62, talked to Reuters about what drove him to make "W." and to release it at this time.

Q: Why is it important to release "W." so near to the 2008 U.S. presidential elections when President George W. Bush is not running for office again?

A: "We are dealing with the phenomenon of Bush and whoever wins the election, his impact is going to be in the shadow of this huge presence that existed for eight years and which changed the world. I think a lot of people should come because it's good for them, before the election, to think about who they elected in the last eight years, and about where we are as a country right now."

Q; Which is the legacy of the Bush administration that most concerns you?

A; "This man has left us with a legacy of three wars -- the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan and the war on terror -- and the policy of the preemptive strike. These are all very dangerous things in terms of foreign policy.

"Internally he has assumed privileges for the executive that were never taken in such extremity before or over such a long period. He has violated laws and not enforced laws that he did not agree with."

Q; Why didn't you make this movie four years ago, when President Bush was running for reelection?

A: "We did not have the information. The 2000-2003 period (of the Bush presidency) was a veiled Orwellian masterpiece, where they closed off all documents and fired anyone in the inner circle who talked to the press. This guy was infallible for three years. It was only in about 2004-2005 that this was starting to come out. Without all the investigative reporters, where would we be?"

Q; What in your opinion was the driving force in Bush's life?

A; "Bush grew up under the curse of being the first son and the black sheep of the family and he had to prove himself stronger (than his father). So for him, winning a second term was crucial and above all finishing the job in Iraq. I think Bush personalizes a very complex series of world situations and makes them into issues of his own ego, which I call cowboy or John Wayne-like."

Q; What will people find most surprising in this movie?

A; "We put our hearts into it. I think it is compassionate and I think people may be surprised it is compassionate."