The real 'W' (or at least the first few pages of the script)

By Steven Zeitchik

Even before a single talent deal was signed or locations scouted, Oliver Stone's "W" was hotter than a Texas afternoon in July. Conservative pundits were ready to pounce on the provocateur for what they said was agenda-driven filmmaking, while Stone and his partners said they were simply telling the story of the Bush White House without varnish or sugar-coating.

As Stephen Galloway and Matthew Belloni report in THR today, both turn out to be right -- sort of. According to four Bush scholars who read a draft of the script, the tale has elements that are unquestionably accurate (like when George Jr. comes home drunk and nearly gets into a fistfight with his father) and elements that are just plain made-up (like when the president and his advisers discuss high-level policy in a casual, even frat-house, sort of manner).

Rather than just let the experts judge, we decided to offer the first few pages of the script, in which Bush and his advisers prep for the "Axis of Evil" speech, here on Risky Biz -- with the caveat that this came from a draft of the script dated in mid-October and, according to sources close to the project, may have changed in the interim.

Access to this excerpt is no longer available.

Comments

[Chris]

Hasn't Hollywood learned anything yet? Movies about current events have had abysmal ticket sales at the box office. Just look at all the box office failures about the Iraq War in the past few years. I see this movie as being yet another box office failure for Hollywood.

[parker godwin]

I'm not a big fan of bush, but I don't like bullies piling on. If you want to have an accurate portrayal, do it. Don't make stuff up. Its like that ronald reagan drama a few years back. It wasn't a docu-drama, it was a left wing political hit job. Leftists always yell about the evil manipulative conservatives. Truth is, leftists in the film industry use their power and talent to manipulate public opinion through propaganda.And the fact they want to release the bush film in time to influence the november election is enough to make Goebbels proud. Lying is lying whether its done by rightists or leftists. It all disgusts me.

[Chukkal]

Another flop!! I love these guys spending mega bucks out of their own pocket their bank a/c vanishing in the wind!!!

[Demosthenes]

You're right, Chris. These films may interest a certain segment of liberal audiences but, in general, people just DON'T want to walk into a theatre and see more of the same depressing/frustrating current events thrown back at them with a slightly "agendized" spin. Just give me pure escapism at the movies and let CNN do everything else.

[Claire]

Another flop indeed! Oliver, wake up. This is not interesting to most of us.

[rpupkin77]

My god that is god awful dialog, talk about bad exposition "but they aren't aligned like Germany and Italy and..." blah blah blah, what a bunch of garbage!

Honestly I don't care that Stone is making a movie about Bush - it will bomb, of course - but god, at least make the dialog work. That is the easy part.

[Sluke]

This movie will flop. Stone and others in Hollywood think low poll numbers will translate into ticket sales. They won't.
Seriously, where's the movie on Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? I didn't like Clinton and I still wouldn't watch such a film. Why do the dimwits running the studios think stuff like this will work?

[BLC]

Stone has not made an intellectually honest movie in years. Everything has become a vehicle for his personal Leftist viewpoint.
He is a half step from becoming another Michael Moore. Bush has been a major dissappointment to me, but Hollywood and the Media's pathological hatred of the man has transcended any definition of reason. It will be decades before any honest review of Bush's administration will be possible.
Till then, spare us the propaganda.

[patrick]

Is the script the winning entry of a third grade screenplay writing contest? I don't know sir...

[billy buoy]

Oliver Stone is the biggest Fiction Writer in all of History. He always adds his own spin to every piece of work, I mean art, he puts together---from Nam to Morrison, Kennedy to Nixon, Stoner adds his own view of how the world was/is. He'll do the same to W..I'm sure he's in bed now with all the left wing hollywood types and has long since forgotten he once served his country, and thus will embellish whatever truth he so chooses.

No one is going to see these recent hatchet job movies about Iraq, our Men in Service, and wont go either to see their current President getting Tazed. Overseas sales will do well, but the French also think Jerry Lewis is a god, so what do they know.

[billy buoy]

Oliver Stone is the biggest Fiction Writer in all of History. He always adds his own spin to every piece of work, I mean art, he puts together---from Nam to Morrison, Kennedy to Nixon, Stoner adds his own view of how the world was/is. He'll do the same to W..I'm sure he's in bed now with all the left wing hollywood types and has long since forgotten he once served his country, and thus will embellish whatever truth he so chooses.

No one is going to see these recent hatchet job movies about Iraq, our Men in Service, and wont go either to see their current President getting Tazed. Overseas sales will do well, but the French also think Jerry Lewis is a god, so what do they know.

[rpupkin77]

Oh yeah, I'm sure some frat douche back at Yale in '66 actually said "this and our vast family fortunes is why we run the world". Who is the f-ing fool who wrote this?

[Ragu]

Another turkey at the box office. Let them waste their money making films that bomb instead of throwing bombs in the political realm.

[James Callahan]

Stated already - it will flop. The American people do not wish to participate in an attack on a president. What the left fail to understand is disapproval and opposition to Bush do not equal dislike for him personally. During Clinton's failings, he constantly had the polls showing how much people liked him, not agreed with him, just liked him. Many people disagree with Bush's policies, but that does not mean they are stupid enough to take Norm's poor writing as mana from heaven on Bush. A man who read a bunch of books on Bush knows as much about Bush as he does about Amindinejad. You will get the 30-40% who will go because they loathe anything conservative and this feeds their opinion. Their tickets will not save this film, nor will dvd nor international (well, it is possible international will - Egypt will probably swallow this crap and the Sauds). Americans are smarter than that.

[CB]

Just another "I hate Bush" flick not worth the time to watch it. Go ahead and spend millions on it. You'll loose your a**.

[Tiffany]

I think that as Americans, and living in today's world where so many people are against one another.....we have to unite as one against the world. If we do not keep our own personal opinions about our leader to ourselves, it just makes us look weaker as a nation. Sad, very very sad.

[Michael]

This isn't a movie. It's a PR stunt by Stone to get his name back in the press and on the A-List celebrities party invites.

[Joe Sheppard]

I have my disagreements with President Bush, but I am disgusted by the Hollywood cowards and wannabees taking aim at the Presidency. The result of this sort of unhumorous satire is to demean the office of the Presidency (particularly one the Hollywood "elite" happens to hate). First, we had President Clinton bring the White House down to the level of a whorehouse, and now a small, vocal bunch of actors and actresses who wish to destroy the very structure of our government as delineated in the Constitution, wish to finish the job.
Go ahead and try! You are free to express yourself and show the majority of good citizens what you are full of, from your toes to the top of your heads!

[Tom]

This is the story of the Bush white house from a leftists point of view. It's the same tired bunch, Stone, Brolin...They can't be trusted to be objective and truthful because they haven't been in the past!

[Rico Smith]

Who gives a hoot about the subject of this movie enough to spend $10 at the theatre to watch a fantasy about a spoiled brat? I would rather spend that money towards our monthly garbage bill.

[Amy]

Hmmm... The first few pages feel a little preachy. I stay out of church cause I'm not a fan of sermons, but I'll reserve my judgement when I see the script/movie in its entirety.

[NSR]

Man, you people are simpletons...that's not the real script. You've been played.

[Paul R]

This movie will flop like all the others. When will they learn. By the way are Stone and M. Moore brothers?

[Walter]

Its not stupid, its just boring. like an 12:45am SNL skit. I'm sure this movie will make Stone's Nixon movie appear like an interesting hit.

[trademark registration]

Political flicks like this used to be popular. But I'm not sure this is going to draw the interest that Bowling for Columbine had.

[JB]

Stone could save the money he'll lose at the box office and write a polemic in the NYT. The NYT would give him an entire section if he wished. I don't see why he has to increase the Hollywood "carbon footprint" just to tell the world that he has an obsessive hatred for George Bush.

[Hookwrench]

This will be popular in Turkey and Iran.

[Lloyd]

Boring. Acutally if you read the wikipedia bio on Oliver Stone, it sounds like a much better movie. Growing up rich, stock broker father takes little Oliver a Hooker to loose his virginity. Dreamed of becoming a mercenary in Congo. Vietnam PTSD, Marchant Marine swabby, married 3 times, A few good movies and a dozen expensive flops. Sounds like a much better film than some poorly written stick figure that everybody knows the plot and ending of.

[Jack Howe]

Hope Stone includes the fist fight that Bush and Cheney had in the Oval office in early 2000 where Bush ends up with a black eye and bloody chin,

[A]

April Fools. This can't be real.

[Fisher]

ROTFLMAO!!!

Is this even freaking serious??

[JP McT]

What absolute DROSS! Another film by Leftists for Leftists. When will these egomaniacs begin to understand that the average citizen of this country does NOT hang on their every word. Mr. Stone and his ilk have one mission in life...and that is to entertain me...when they can no longer do that, my 15 bucks stay in my pocket and he gets to write his memoirs. I am not amused.

[jacksprat]

Ollie Stoned makes a documentary about Bush Derangement Syndrome....Oh, yeah, this'll be B.O. Boffo!

[Frank]

Total BS

[Frank]

From Midland, total BS

[Karyn]

More like Oliver 'Stoned.' Like all the other twisted versions of past republican presidents. What I'd really like to see if Oliver had REAL 'STONES' is a TRUTHFUL
adaptation of the 'Clinton years.' Don't spare any of the truth, and I guarantee a box office hit. Sex.. Bill and his Harem. Drama... Bill explaining his Harem to Hillary. And Violence... Hillary beating the crap out of Bill. Take notes Oliver ol' Oliver!

[Frank]

Total BS

[Bush]

painfully written script. who can watch the garbage hollywood produces these days. a good movie is a rarity and certainly doesn't come off the politically driven scripts of most writers, directors and producers. this should have been a moore documentary instead of trying to pass itself off as a serious attempt at movie-making. As Bush changes history, these small men can only sit aside and critique. the critic adds very little to the world in the end.

[Fatty Parker]

The idiots who think this movie will tank just because other movies about current events have, are wrong. The other movies criticized our troops and our country. This one cast a light on our dim-witted president and people will love it.

[hailstate]

This movie will kill overseas, because it feeds into the most simplistic Bush-hating stereotypes. America can handle an accurate portrait of Bush, positive and negative, but this seems like a joke.