Bush, Brolin, Stone

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A guy dropped by Panavision headquarters on Selma Avenue in Hollywood yesterday, and visited briefly with Oliver Stone as he was testing looks for Josh Brolin as George W. Bush in the movie known as either Bush or, according to the drop-by guy, W.

Josh Brolin; George Bush

"When i walked in, I thought some stand-in that looked an awful lot like young Bush was under the lights," he says, "but it was Brolin, very skinny and looking amazingly like Bush. The hair was perfect. This may be a home run." Visually, he means. Obviously.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 21, 2008 at 8:28 PM

comment #1

WinslowLeachtheComposer says ...

Being There, the horror movie.

Posted by WinslowLeachtheComposer at March 21, 2008 8:50 PM

comment #2

Luke Y. Thompson says ...

Too soon!

I think a Stone-type take on Bush would be fun some day, but can't we at least get some distance and perspective first?

NIXON would have been very different had Stone started prepping it while the man was still in office.

Posted by Luke Y. Thompson at March 21, 2008 10:05 PM

comment #3

/3rtfu11 says ...

Too bad he won't be brought to justice.

Posted by /3rtfu11 at March 21, 2008 10:10 PM

comment #4

scooterzz says ...

i agree with 'too soon'......i just can't imagine sitting through this unless it was some big, vile thing like the cockettes would do (a la 'trisha nixon's wedding')....

Posted by scooterzz at March 21, 2008 10:28 PM

comment #5

nemo says ...

I don't know, Josh Brolin was awfully damn convincing playing a down home Texas good ol' boy in No Country. He might be just a little too real to play a phony ass Texas good ol' boy from Connecticut like Bush.

I gather Brolin is playing the younger George W during his Nomadic Years. Did they have Brolin do a screen test playing W when he was head cheerleader at Phillips Andover Academy? Snorting coke off a hooker's tits?

Posted by nemo at March 21, 2008 10:38 PM

comment #6

nemo says ...

Hey, my hair already looks perfectly like W's hair, at least on a bad hair day. On a good hair day I'm a dead ringer for George Clooney.

Posted by nemo at March 21, 2008 10:40 PM

comment #7

Edward Havens says ...

W is the current title, and the film is scheduled to begin shooting in Louisiana on April 21. Casting is currently ongoing for Ari Fleischer, Tommy Franks, George Tenet and Paul Wolfowitz, as well as several others from various segments of W's life from Yale on.

Posted by Edward Havens at March 21, 2008 10:45 PM

comment #8

le corbeau says ...

What about this is going to make it any more worth seeing than American Dreamz?

Posted by le corbeau at March 21, 2008 10:49 PM

comment #9

hiviper says ...

he needs Shrub's hawk nose. Hopefully they'll add that later.

Posted by hiviper at March 21, 2008 11:03 PM

comment #10

nemo says ...

"Casting is currently ongoing for Ari Fleischer, Tommy Franks, George Tenet and Paul Wolfowitz, ..."

Playing Paul Wolfowitz in a movie about W. Now there's a thankless job for an actor.

But on the other hand, it could present a subtle acting challenge. Playing a man struggling to hang on to his tattered self-respect as he realizes he's hitching his wagon to the fortunes of an obvious no-nothing nimrod.

In every scene Wolfowitz is thinking to himself that Kissinger at least had the good fortune to hook up with a smart crook.

Posted by nemo at March 21, 2008 11:08 PM

comment #11

nemo says ...

Whoops, that's "know-nothing". Time for bed.

Paul Giamatti looks nothing like Wolfowitz, but he's smart, he's the right height, and he proved in Sideways he can bring the requisite self-loathing to the role as Wolfowitz tutors W in World Affairs For Dummies.

Posted by nemo at March 21, 2008 11:12 PM

comment #12

actionman says ...

This movie will probably be a masterwork I am betting.

Posted by actionman at March 21, 2008 11:31 PM

comment #13

hiviper says ...

Nemo, that 'subtle challenge" you speak of applies to just about about every player in this story.

Maybe not Cheney and Rummy - they knew the score from the beginning

Posted by hiviper at March 22, 2008 12:11 AM

comment #14

PoisonSkin says ...

the scene with wolfowitz and his tattered socks will be hilarious.

Posted by PoisonSkin at March 22, 2008 12:21 AM

comment #15

Malone says ...

What are the odds that Wells never says one discouraging word about this film?

Predictable...

Posted by Malone at March 22, 2008 12:25 AM

comment #16

JohnCope says ...

I'm still wondering what Stone's point is in making this movie now, to be released, presumably, right post-election. Really, what's his agenda here?

Supposedly the script is great--in what way I wonder. Satire? Drama? A little of everything?

Posted by JohnCope at March 22, 2008 1:03 AM

comment #17

Craptastic says ...

Stone has a blacker than black sense of humor and I'm betting this is going to be his "Strangelove".

I think he's the right director for the subject. He'll be able to play Bush's moronic side for laughs but show how it really isn't a "side"... it's just him-- then playing into the dramatic element of what the man-thing really did to this country and the thousands of people that have died by his hand.

One of Stone's strong points is that he's able to mix comic relief and drama flawlessly.

I see the film starting out with Sparks' "Can I Invade Your Country?" over the titles. That's be pretty powerful.

Posted by Craptastic at March 22, 2008 1:25 AM

comment #18

SmilingPolitely says ...

Oddly enough, this is the first time Wells has commented about this movie that I'm aware of.

I'm glad Stone is making it while Bush is still in office. That rat fucker deserves the irritation!

Hopefully, after "Bush" wraps, the Cheney movie gets filmed next. It would be released Halloween '09, as the sixth and last entry into the "Saw" franchise. William Hurt, Richard Dreyfuss, or Danny Devito (in full Penguin regalia) should get the burden.

I would also like to add that Anthony Hopkins was robbed of his Oscar for "Nixon". Damn you, Nic Cage!

Posted by SmilingPolitely at March 22, 2008 1:27 AM

comment #19

Josh Massey says ...

Nixon made $13.7 million.

This will make less.

Posted by Josh Massey at March 22, 2008 6:01 AM

comment #20

le corbeau says ...

"Oddly enough, this is the first time Wells has commented about this movie that I'm aware of."

Then you missed at least one.

I think this is an astonishingly pointless exercise. As this thread makes obvious, the main audience is the rabid Bush-hating who will want something like this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070908/

Yet will they really care when Gore's president? The times have a way of changing quickly with a new face in charge. I saw David Frye still doing Nixon a few years after he resigned, it was impossible to get the old enthusiasm back up, it was as edgy as a stick of butter.

The time to have made this was either two years ago, crude but timely, or ten years from now when the memoirs have come out and some long-term perspective on events can be had.

Posted by le corbeau at March 22, 2008 6:24 AM

comment #21

Rich S. says ...

Remember "That's My Bush!" on Comedy Central? Timothy Bottoms did a dead-on Bush impression there, much better than anyone on SNL has accomplished.

But, yeah, why now? Bush is the lamest of lame ducks. And the full repercussions of his administration, negative or positive, won't be known for at least a decade.

Will it even come out before the election? Is it meant to play the guilt by association card? I don't really get the reasoning here.

Posted by Rich S. at March 22, 2008 8:26 AM

comment #22

le corbeau says ...

Yeah, I thought That's My Bush's one joke-- play Bush like he's on The Jeffersons or something-- went stale pretty quickly, but Bottoms was astonishingly dead-on, and he could be mistaken for the real thing visually.

Did it get killed when 9/11 happened? I assume that's why it ended.

Posted by le corbeau at March 22, 2008 10:04 AM

comment #23

SmilingPolitely says ...

Fahrenheit 9-11 making over $200 million worldwide when it was released before '04 election, probably has a lot to do with this film getting financed and released when it is.

"MGMAX says: Then you missed at least one."

No, I'm fairly certain Jeff has never commented on the Stone's Dubya movie before this post. A Google search comes up with nothing but this post.

Posted by SmilingPolitely at March 22, 2008 10:30 AM

comment #24

Edward says ...

Hasn't "The Omen" already been remade?

Posted by Edward at March 22, 2008 10:53 AM

comment #25

le corbeau says ...

Commenters commented here, that's what I was thinkin' of:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/01/josh_brolins_x_1.php

Posted by le corbeau at March 22, 2008 11:11 AM

comment #26

Joe Leydon says ...

Actually, I thought Chris Cooper really nailed Bush (even though he was -- wink-wink, nod-nod -- playing a fictional chracater) in Silver City.

Posted by Joe Leydon at March 22, 2008 11:16 AM

comment #27

Jay T. says ...

This is just plain stupid. They shouldn't even try to do a W movie for at least 10 years, and probably longer.

Posted by Jay T. at March 22, 2008 12:43 PM

comment #28

corey3rd says ...

will Josh's stepmom play Barabra Bush? Dick Cheney will be played by the green evil smoke that claimed the first born in the 10 Commandents.

Posted by corey3rd at March 22, 2008 5:04 PM

comment #29

thorsen1nk says ...

This might be the dumbest idea I've ever heard. With Dubya's approval ratings in the crapper at around 27 percent, I think a majority of Americans sick of watching that corporate stooge mug for the cameras while Iraq burns and the US economy crumbles will pay $10 NOT to hear or see the dunce in chief for 2 hours. (Or, knowing stone, 3.5 hours in theaters, 4 on the director's cut dvd)

Posted by thorsen1nk at March 27, 2008 12:24 AM

comment #30