Stone Hurries to Finish Bush Movie

The Guardian UK has a report on the forthcoming Oliver Stone biopic, W., which is about President Bush. Sure to be controversial, the paper reports that Stone is rushing to finish the film because he wants it to hit screens before the November election.

Stone says the film, which stars Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, James Cromwell as George Herbert Walker Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush and Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, will pose the question "How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" Bush's alcoholism and strained relationship with his father will be among the subjects covered by the film.

The film will also get into the president's motives for invading Iraq (from the report linked above):

When the current president is asked in 2002 what his focus on Saddam is all about, he replies, in reference to a Kuwaiti claim that the Iraqi intelligence services plotted to assassinate his father during a visit to Kuwait in the spring of 1993: "You don't go after the Bushes and get to talk about it. Ya got me?"

Many historians criticize Stone's many biopics and historical films for factual errors and misrepresentations. Others laud his courageous forays into extremely provocative of subject matter. Clearly Stone's not going to go easy on Bush, and so far, historians haven't been either.