W casting calls

• email this story
• read comments (26)
• post a comment
• 
  
  

HE reactions to Oliver Stone's casting choices on W, his about-to-shoot Dubya drama which will star Josh Brolin. Elizabeth Banks, 34, seems too young to play First Lady Laura Bush, who was just shy of 50 when her husband became the Texas governor and 54 when he was inaugurated as President on 1.20.01. James Cromwell as George H.W. Bush -- perfect, but he'll have to be de-aged. Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush -- fine.

Finding the right guy to portray Dick Cheney will be a make-or-breaker. It'll be more of a matter of someone who can get the voice right -- "So?" Richard Dreyfuss?

Stone wrote the screenplay with his Wall Street co-writer Stanley Weiser. W "is expected to be ready for distribution possibly by the November presidential elections and certainly before Bush leaves the White House in January," Variety's Michael Fleming wrote yesterday.

comment #1

George Prager says ...

Cheney? I guess David Huddleston is too old.

comment #2

chicbn872 says ...

Has anybody read this thing? Does it just completely put W on a skewer or what? I get the feeling that Oliver may actually be fair and impartial here. After all, he was when he made "Nixon".

comment #3

mizerock says ...

I'm still trying to figure out why this movie needs to be made. What is it going to add to the public conversation? What can be shown that hasn't already been discussed, ad nauseum, for the past 8 years? I'm willing to believe that Stone is going to try and make his depection "fair", but that actually makes things worse. Republicans will hate it for being too harsh and biased, Democrats will hate it for pulling too many punches.

This concept would only work as a movie-of-the-week impersonation spectacle. If that. Am I missing something here? Is this for everyone that never read a blog or an Op-Ed piece, and yet still pays attention to movies? Recent Oliver Stone movies, no less? Maybe I'm underestimating the size of the intended demographic.

comment #4

tjfar67 says ...

Cheney? Philip Seymore Hoffman? Just a thought...

comment #5

tjfar67 says ...

Cheney? Philip Seymore Hoffman? Just a thought...

comment #6

Mgmax says ...

Here, I have some other suggestions in line with Stone's approach:

Donald Rumsfeld:
http://tinyurl.com/36ov5q

Paul Wolfowitz:
http://tinyurl.com/35btkr

Lewis "Scooter" Libbey:
http://tinyurl.com/32o92n

comment #7

Mgmax says ...

Damn, sorry that last one didn't work. You get the idea.

"I get the feeling that Oliver may actually be fair and impartial here. After all, he was when he made "Nixon"."

He was somewhat less than condemnatory, but he was always totally bonkers, taking the comic highlight of the Nixon administration (that time he went and talked football at the Lioncoln Memorial with student protesters) and turning it into some weird conspiratorial shit about how "they" forced him into war (presumably the same they who planned the assassination of the Vietnam peacemaker Kennedy).

I don't expect him to reach those heights of coherence on the subject of the current president.

comment #8

Geoff says ...

Prince Philip and George H.W. Bush.

comment #9

Mgmax says ...

Sorry, meant to say "also totally bonkers," not "always" which is not true, much of the film is straightforward presentation of familiar scenes very similar to various TV movies on the same subject.

comment #10

UnChien says ...

I really don't know what to expect from this film. Stone's last truly great film was Nixon (though I like U-turn alot), and World Trade Center was really embarassing (when Jesus revealed himself holding a bottle of water me and my fellow audience broke down in a hysterical laughterfit). Anyway, here's hoping for a return to form.

As for Cheney-casting; too bad Lawrence Tierney is already dead.

comment #11

Mgmax says ...

Not really OT: good, not especially partisan piece on post-9/11 filmmaking and the obsession with the 70s in Hollywood at The Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200804/iraq-movies

comment #12

rr3333 says ...

Stone's washed up ....

I dont expect anything close to greatness.

Sad, but true.

comment #13

SmilingPolitely says ...

I cast my vote for William Hurt as Cheney.

As for Banks, that's definitely not an obvious choice. She must have had a some kind of fucking great screen test with Brolin, and she just couldn't be denied. For a young Laura Bush, as far as appearances are concerned, her resemblance is fine. I guess a good chunk of the movie will focus on Bush and Laura in their 20's,30's, and 40's which would make the casting of Banks make some sense.

I'm rooting for Stone, and I'm hoping the patriotic and conspiracy-free WTC afforded him a chance to start making the sort of rabble-rousing movies that he's best at.

comment #14

115thDreamer says ...

Dreyfuss as Cheney would work. He certainly played a Rove/Cheney type of advisor in John Sayles' "Silver City", but hardly anyone saw that, so I think he could do it again. One of the few bits I remember from the flick is Dreyfuss & another character sitting in a balcony, listening to Dreyfuss' politician boss rehearsing a speech. The boss is outlining some policy but speaking in vague terms, and the guy sitting w/ Dreyfuss doesn't understand, and when he asks Dreyfuss "What does that mean?", Dreyfuss bluntly responds "No Handouts for Homos".

comment #15

JChasse says ...

Stone cast Joan Allen, who I always thought to be very attractive, as Pat Nixon. It kind of threw me to see a Pat Nixon that made me want to do to her what Nixon did to the country.

comment #16

Rob says ...

I think William Hurt as Cheney is a great idea.

I hope they dramatize Laura's high school hit-and-run incident. With Banks in the part, it could be like something out of a John Waters movie.

comment #17

shepherd12345 says ...

You know who would have been a lights-out, kickass, dead-perfect Dick Cheney: J.T. Walsh.

RIP.

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

I'm afraid this is turning into something insane. As in Val Kilmer as King Phillip snarling in an Irish accent insane.

comment #19

frankbooth says ...

Elizabeth Banks?!! Why not just cast Adriana Lima or Angelina Jolie?

Most ridiculous casting ever, unless they bring in Rick Baker to do major prosthetics.

comment #20

Dzayson says ...

Anyone out there watch 24? That guy that plays Mike Novick is a dead ringer for Cheney.

comment #21

Geoff says ...

Dzayson, I agree completely. It will make me laugh extremely hard at first though.

comment #22

chicbn872 says ...

Jude Ciccolella is the guy from 24 and he does look like him.

I agree with what most folks are saying here. I think it's Olliie Stone's weak attempt at grabbing some relevance. "Alexander" is a disgrace and "World Trade Center" made a few bucks but it's also quite lame. If he was really interested in making a movie about W, it wouldn't be fast-tracked like this in hopes of getting it in theaters in time for November. That is just insane. Instead, why not have a movie in the theaters while some folks are already in a political mood?

comment #23

oakling says ...

Good gravy, how can anyone be too old to play Cheney?
I hope they show all his drug use and drunk driving and.... (Bush's, not Cheney's. As far as I know.)

comment #24

Mumbleboy says ...

I've heard elsewhere (ie Chud) that they're going after Robert Robert Duvall for Cheney.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with 24's Mike Novick. Not the actor, but the character.

comment #25

Dzayson says ...

Cheney's actually got TWO DUIs. TWO!

comment #26

TL says ...

Too soon! We still don't know the extent of Bush's crimes to make a judgment on his presidency on celluloid.

Post a Comment