US film director Oliver Stone arrives at Apiay military base in Villavicencio Dec. 31, 2007
Oliver Stone isn't a fan of the decision to invade Iraq, but in his next film he wants to render "a fair, true portrait" of President Bush, Variety reported. "How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" Mr. Stone asked. "It's like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I'll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from. It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own, with the stunning, pre-emptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors." If financing materializes, "Bush," starring Josh Brolin, above, as the president in a screenplay written by Stanley Weiser, who wrote "Wall Street" with Mr. Stone, will go before the cameras in April and could be in theaters by Election Day or by the inauguration of the next president. "I'm a dramatist who is interested in people," Mr. Stone said, "and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great."
Oliver Stone's 'World Trade Center' Opens at No. 3
Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," the 9/11 rescue drama from Paramount starring Nicolas Cage, placed an underwhelming No. 3 at the box office over the weekend, but its $19 million gross far exceeded the opening weekend of last spring's "United 93," the first Hollywood movie to tackle the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Everyone was wondering what the effect of the Heathrow incident would have on the grosses," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Company, which tracks box-office results. "I think it may have helped, by making the movie that more relevant."
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," the Columbia Pictures comedy starring Will Ferrell as a Nascar racer, held on as the nation's most popular movie through its second weekend, grossing $23 million, while the teenage dance romance "Step Up," from Buena Vista Pictures, opened to $21.1 million.
Paramount executives said they had positioned "World Trade Center," which opened on Wednesday, to benefit from strong word of mouth and a paucity of serious movies on the late-summer release schedule.
"Next week you have 'Snakes on a Plane,' which has a very targeted, specific audience, and other than that, you don't have anything else vying for the attention of adults," said Rob Moore, president for worldwide marketing, distribution and home entertainment at Paramount. "This is a very different, unique movie - the issues it deals with, how emotional it is - and when you play to an older audience, you really do have the luxury of time. I'd never tell you that with 'Nacho Libre' we had the luxury of time. That is why we picked the August release date, and why we picked the Wednesday opening."
The $19 million total was Mr. Stone's best three-day opening weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations. For the five-day period "World Trade Center" took in $26.8 million. By comparison, "United 93," from Universal, which opened on April 28, took in $11.5 million on its opening weekend and grossed only $31.5 million domestically.
In New York, where Paramount treaded gingerly in marketing the film for obvious reasons, "World Trade Center" performed particularly well, Mr. Moore said: grosses from the New York metropolitan area exceeded the Los Angeles box office by 10 percent. By contrast, he said, Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" took in 52 percent more in Los Angeles than New York on its opening weekend, and "Talladega Nights" took in 40 percent more in Los Angeles.
"Everything that we hoped about the movie has started to happen, and now it's about 'Can you still in this day and age have a movie that can be propelled by word of mouth?' " Mr. Moore said. "You take the movie Oliver made, the initial turnout, the response of the audience and critics, and all of that feels, to us, that we should be able to play and not have a movie that falls 65 percent from Week 1 to 2 and then does all of its business in two weekends. This to us was always a movie that should have exceptional hold. We think it should play for a very long time."
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