Given that poor Oliver Stone has just started shooting W last month, and has been given a deadline of October to get it done, a) I feel for the guy, and b) it seems inevitable the marketing of this film has to start, like, now. So, sure enough, here’s the first teaser poster for the film. Interestingly enough, even though Stone and the studio were suggesting that W would be a serious drama a la Stone’s NIXON, this poster seems to spit in the face of that.
I’ll be honest, based on this poster, I’m not sure I want to see this anymore. Of course I will actually see it, because I’m just utterly fascinated by this project, in a kind of watching-a-train-wreck kind of way. It’s just that this poster seems to indicate it will really be a mocking farce, and yes the quotes are funny, but it’s just so damn easy to make fun of the guy – and it’s been done so much now – that it’s getting old. I mean, I’m pretty sure a three year old could land a pretty good burn against the guy at this point. If all Stone’s W can offer is jokes that have been made before, then what’s really the point?
That being said, I love the dictionary approach. If the poster had just been the letter, the pronunciation, the noun, and the “Improbable President” bit, I think I might be much more on board with this.
Entertainment Weekly just seems like it’s on a roll lately, what with a slew of great and topical interviews (whether it be Spielberg/Lucas, Harrison Ford, or Favreau and Downey Jr.), and some big scoops, including the upcoming issue which will feature a cover story of Oliver Stone’s W. A cover story of course means we get pictures, and sure enough it provides us with our first look at Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as the first couple. I have to say, I still think this project is pretty wacky in terms of story, but Brolin and Banks look pretty dead-on. I can barely even recognize Brolin underneath that make-up.
On a side note, the film nerd in me thinks it’s pretty cool that while Thom Ernst of TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies was interviewing Oliver Stone in his L.A. office recently (you can read about his experience here; scroll to the bottom) this was probably all in the works already. That Stone is a tight-lipped fella.
Anyone else think that Oliver Stone’s George Bush Jr. biopic is one of the strangest projects currently in development right now in Hollywood? Well, at least the strangest outside of David O. Rusell’s current film. Though Josh Brolin works as the Bush Jr., as does Elizabeth Banks who has just been revealed to be cast as the First Lady, James Cromwell (Bush Sr.) and Jeffrey Wright (Colin Powell) seem to be stranger choices to me.
Also doesn’t it just seem a bit early to have a biopic about George Bush? Given how popular he is these days, does anyone even care to see a film about him, especially one that Stone promises will be a balanced representation of the current American President yet is being described as, “the improbable story of a man who went to the White House despite getting fewer votes than his opponent; who became commander-in-chief despite having avoided military combat himself; and who became the least popular president ever elected to a second term. W will shock and surprise you and leave you questioning everything you believe to be true.”
That description does sell the film slightly better, I find, but I’m still left wondering how the film is actually going to turn out, and whether it’s really going to end up being a biopic, or just another liberal anti-Iraq film.
What do you guys think?
Source: EW
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