apropos of nothing

Oliver Stone’s Bush Biopic Will Be the Comedy Hit of 2009

Photo: Getty Images


Last Tuesday, when ABC News published this report on the screenplay for Oliver Stone’s upcoming George W. Bush biopic, we thought for certain it was an April Fools’ prank. A subtle one, surely, but the tipoff was the parts about Bush’s drinking vodka from a garbage can and yelling stuff like, “I’d like to stuff a plate of freedom fries down that slick piece of shit’s throat!” — things we’d always assumed our president was doing and saying every single day behind closed Oval Office doors but, sadly, wouldn’t get to see in the big-screen adaptation of his life’s story. Turns out it was no prank! The Hollywood Reporter apparently obtained a copy of the very same early draft of the script, which they sent to four Bush biographers, all of whom are skeptical of its accuracy: “It leaves you with the impression that the White House is run as a fraternity,” says Robert Draper, author of Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush. “This notion that his schedule is driven by what’s on ESPN is ludicrous.”

What concerns us, mostly, isn’t the film’s accuracy but how funny it is — and W sounds like a laugh riot! We’re slightly worried about the casting, though; can Josh Brolin really handle pratfalls and physical comedy that his role as George W. Bush surely requires? Might Will Ferrell have been the better choice, even though that would’ve been painfully obvious? To what extent is Judd Apatow involved in W? Did Seth Rogen write the screenplay, or will he just appear as one of Bush’s Cabinet members? (He would make a perfect John Ashcroft!) Are we finally getting a movie version of That’s My Bush!? It sure looks like it!

Bush biographers mixed on script for Oliver Stone’s ‘W’ [HR]
Stone Fills Out Cast for Bush Movie [ABC News]

Oliver Stone’s Bush Biopic Will Be the Comedy Hit of 2009