In a Variety video chat between Oliver Stone and Da 5 Bloods helmer Spike Lee, Stone mentions that his four-hour JFK assassination doc has (a) been invited to play at the Cannes Film Festival in July, and that (b) he can’t find a U.S. distributor, apparently because of a concern about questionable readings and allegations.
Stone’s description of the situation is a bit vague, but he says that both Netflix and National Geographic have declined to distribute. Here’s part of the convo:
Spike Lee: You’re doing your doc series, right?
Oliver Stone: [I’m] doing documentaries because they’re direct and I can go right to the audience and say this and this. [But even in that realm], I’m having problems. I’m doing one on energy and one on JFK. Four hours [and] very powerful. It’s based on the facts that came out of the [1991] movie. The movie kicked off the assassination records review board for five years. They were not empowered to investigate, but they were empowered to clarify. And they did the best they could with these limitations. The facts that they presented, we go into. It makes the case harder, tighter. It’s about real facts that are shocking to people.
Lee: So you can’t you can’t find a home for this doc?
Stone: Not yet. Not for the American side. Cannes invited us for July of this year. That’s a big step for us because, at least, if it can’t be recognized in America as a document, it will be [internationally].
Lee: I can’t wait to see this four-hour JFK [doc].
Stone: In Europe.
Lee: Netflix said no?
Stone: Yeah. [And] today I just got the word that National Geographic has also said no.
Lee: What was the reason?
Stone: They said they did their fact check. Yeah. Where are you going to find this information except in this film? If they do a fact check, according to conventional sources, of course it’ll come out like this is not true. How can you go and prove that it’s true? It’s very, it’s very tough. You have to have some imagination here.
Lee: I have to see it in Cannes, where I’ll be president of the jury. Let’s have a drink, sir.