Oliver Stone
View's Hasselbeck Would Like to Work for Sean Hannity
In early October, The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck denied rumors that she was considering moving to Fox News. But today on the show, during an interview with Richard Dreyfuss, Ms. Hasselbeck—who recently stumped for Sarah Palin in Florida—quipped that she'd "like" to work for Fox News' Sean Hannity.
In a clip provided by the Huffington Post, Mr. Dreyfuss describes working for W. director Oliver Stone by saying, "Imagine working for Sean Hannity."
As Mr. Dreyfuss pauses to let that image sink in, Ms. Hasselbeck chimes in, "I would like that!"
"Would you?" The actor asks. "Then you'd like working for Oliver... You know, you can be a fascist even when you're on the left."
Morning Memo: Lindsay Lohan Behaving Badly!; Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise Colonize East Village; Guy Ritchie In Tears
Lindsay Lohan's guest appearance on Ugly Betty was cut from six episodes to four because of trouble on the set. Issues included ego clashes with star America Ferrera, the size of Ms. Lohan's entourage, and a de-pantsing incident. People on set were also bothered by Ms. Lohan's tendency to "obsessively cut pictures of herself out of the tabloids like she was creating some sort of scrapbook." [P6]
Among the things Sarah Palin doesn't know: who Oliver Stone is. [R&M, second item]
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have been buying up a bunch of separate apartments in a building in the East Village, where Tom is friendly to the neighbors and Katie "keeps her head down." [P6] read more »
Hey, Mr. Stone, Where'd Your Bite Go?
Long before Sarah Palin turned it into a punch line, the word "maverick" was associated with Oliver Stone. Mr. Stone was always the Last of the Mohicans -- a '70s auteur trapped in the wrong decade. His name on a film meant you were getting something more than just a trip to the cinema. This was pop art designed to get a rise out of the audience in any way possible. And because of that, for the better part of a decade Mr. Stone was one of the most polarizing names in film.
We can remember the vitriol following the announcement that he was going to direct World Trade Center. read more »
Oliver Stone on George W. Bush: 'He Thinks Differently--He Doesn't Examine His Life'
As the Daily Transom walked up 54th Street towards the Ziegfeld Theater Tuesday evening, we silently congratulated the PR firm handling the premiere of Oliver Stone's W. on the little spectacle they'd created for our benefit--the rows of black SUVs lining the sidewalk, the suited "Secret Service" officers, the "snipers" installed on the roof of the neighboring building. Taking our place among the waiting press, we noticed an enterprising television anchor showing off something he had captured on his digital camera. "Bristol Palin," he was saying. "I got her on tape--she was just walking around!"
In a coincidence--one that will surely get someone fired and someone promoted--the McCain and Palin families were in New York for a fundraiser and the final debate and had been installed at the Hilton directly across the street from the entrance to the theater. Their motorcades took off right as the actors began to arrive. From her car, the reliably well-programmed Cindy McCain smiled broadly and waved goodbye to the assembled press--not to mention massive posters of Josh Brolin posing as George W. Bush that lined the red carpet. read more »
Lineup for October 15th, 2008
Felix Gillette and John Koblin attended a conference of media folks at Time Warner Center and saw, "dark days. Banks, churches, newspapers, the presidency—all in decline."
Don't forget publishing, since, according to Leon Neyfakh, "At hand is the twilight of an era most did not expect to miss, but will."
Plus: Oliver Stone... Mad Men... Saturday Night Live.
The Wizard of W.
On the night of Monday, October 13, Oliver Stone was being chauffeured around downtown Manhattan, looking for the dinner party he was running late for, and talking about what the subject of his new film, W., has in common with the Wizard of Oz. Connecting W., which examines and chronicles the life of George W. Bush leading up to and including his presidency, to the 1939 Judy Garland flying-monkeys extravaganza might not seem all that intuitive. But in conversation about his latest subject, Mr. Stone was drawn back again and again to the moment that Dorothy discovers that the great and most powerful wizard was
really just an ordinary man, hiding behind a curtain, desperately pressing buttons and pulling levers to keep up the illusion of his control. read more »
Wow! Mr. Diane Lane Makes a Wonderful W.
W.
Running time 131 minutes
Written by Stanley Weiser
Directed by Oliver Stone
Starring Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey Wright
Oliver Stone’s W., from a screenplay by Stanley Weiser, arrives at a strange time in our nation’s history, when even Iraq and Afghanistan have been pushed off the front pages and away from the TV talking heads by our current doomsday financial crisis. Of course, Mr. Stone, Mr. Weiser and their array of gifted collaborators had no way of knowing before they finished work on their production that the darkest days of the Bush presidency would soon dawn with what now seems like a Herbert Hooverian plunge into the abyss of a worldwide economic collapse. read more »
Hollywood Rushes Wall Street Sequel, Sans Stone
With the ups and downs of the Dow during the last month feeling like a ride on the Cyclone, it's no wonder that 20th Century Fox wants to get their long-gestating Wall Street sequel, generically titled Money Never Sleeps, back on the fast track. The follow-up to Oliver Stone's seminal 1987 film has been knocking around the Fox lot since May 2007 when the studio announced it was going ahead with the project without Mr. Stone but with Michael Douglas returning as the iconic Gordon Gekko. However after the historical upheavals in the financial world during the last month, and what reportedly amounted to a shoddy script from writer Stephen Schiff (The Deep End of the Ocean), a page one rewrite is now in order. Unfortunately, the studio just announced that they hired Allan Loeb, he of 21 infamy, to handle the new duties.
Of course there are bigger problems with this project than just the script or the fact that neither Mr. Stone nor original writer Stanley Weiser are involved. The original film came out over twenty years ago. That's a loooooong time fellas! read more »
Reporter's Query Puts Rove's Brain at Risk of Exploding
On Saturday, The New York Times' Mark Leibovich filed a piece about the legacy of Karl Rove, George Bush's former senior advisor known to detractors as "Bush's brain" and to friends as "Turd Blossom."
After noting Mr. Rove's columns for The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, his gig as a Fox News commentator, and his reported $40,000 speaking fees, Mr. Leibovich points out that Mr. Rove's name is on everyone's lips–especially as the Republican campaign for the White House has turned darker in recent weeks. read more »
Will W. Be The Funniest Movie Of The Season?
Even after the first W. trailer was released this summer, we weren't sure what to expect from Oliver Stone's film. Well, that's not exactly true. We expected that it would be totally bananas, but we didn't know how far it would take things and whether it would be any good.
From the looks of it, W. goes further than our imaginations even figured. One of our favorite movie blogs, In Contention, posted a new television spot (and linked to another over at Huffington Post) and well, consider us incredibly excited. If W. isn't the funniest movie (or possibly depressing) of 2008, we don't know what is. read more »
Oliver Stone to Make Film About G.W. Bush
Director Oliver Stone is shopping around a script for a movie about President George W. Bush, which he hopes will enter production by April, Variety reports. Up for playing the (surely entertaining) role of G.W. is No County For Old Men star Josh Brolin, who, Mr. Stone told Variety, is better looking than our current president, “but has the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush, who has some of that old-time movie-star swagger.” Mr. Stone, who has made films about past all-star presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, promises that his Bush project will be “fair,” containing “surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors.”
Pinkville, Angels & Demons Shelved Due to Strike
Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels & Demons, and Oliver Stone's Pinkville were shelved during the weekend because scribes can't finish writing the scripts during the strike, according to Variety. read more »
Stone's World Trade Center: Can Two Stand for Many?
The Politicker
Time perfectly with the release of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, of course.
—Nicole BrydsonThe Politicker
Time perfectly with the release of Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, of course.
—Nicole BrydsonA Taste of Cindy
Today's Post gives Cindy Adams a much-deserved page-one teaser: "WTC: Why I hate this lousy movie."
Inside, on page 14, Cindy--self-nominated as "New York's watchdog" (motion seconded! And carried!)--touches all the critical bases:
* Filmgoing experience? "Slow-moving and formulaic."
* Commercial prospects? Oliver Stone's "handlers are moving him around with a tweezer. Must be, like on that actual day itself, they, too, can smell death."
* Factual accuracy? "Goshen to Manhattan for a cop driver on an empty highway at that hour is an hour and 15....He couldn't still be driving at 6 a.m."
* The ethics of commodifying and aestheticizing the mass murder of thousands of people, thereby reinforcing the horrifying success of the terrorists in their principal aim of creating an unforgettable spectacle? "When it came to filming, the city wouldn't allow Oliver Stone to close off those streets again and again, dress them with ash and debris and personal belongings and bleeding bodies, and more screams and agonies and horror and people jumping from windows...[F]ilm crews were permitted establishing shots, skyline shots, outdoor location shots only as close as Canal Street. The rest was newsreel footage, CGI graphics and whatever real pain they could fake in the studios in L.A.....I now report these Hollywood people out for a buck should have left us alone."
Cf. David Denby in the New Yorker, calling United 93 "a hundred percent professional filmmaking" and "true existential filmmaking," in the belief that settles anything. read more »
Plus, a restaurant manager kissed her! And a waiter!
Today's score:
Five Yorkies!
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs
Now, don't those $10.50 tickets sting a little less?
-Matthew Schuerman
