New 'W' trailer: A walk on the wild side with Bush

It was just a couple of weeks ago that conservative commentators were all saying that liberals were humorless dolts, offering as Exhibit A the outraged reaction to the New Yorker's hilarious Barack Obama as Muslim terrorist cover cartoon. So I'm betting those same commentators will heartily embrace Lionsgate's first teaser trailer for Oliver Stone's "W," which just posted today on YouTube (with the admonition: "This is not a fake"), focusing on the young Dubya, acting like he's starring in a boozy remake of "Old School."

The reason "W" got turned down at every big studio in town wasn't because anyone was politically nervous about making the movie--Bush is too unpopular today to worry even the most timid Hollywood studio chief. In fact, the studio that came closest to saying yes was the Rupert Murdoch owned 20th Century Fox, which figured that having Fox release a wild-eyed anti-Bush movie would cause so much buzz that it would be a unique marketing ingredient unto itself.

The real worry has always been that the story itself was HBO docudrama material, with too many talky scenes set in White House war rooms. The Lionsgate trailer shrewdly explodes that notion. It opens with Dubya (played by Josh Brolin) being dressed down by his dad ("I remember correctly, you didn't like the sporting goods job...") before careening off into hard-partying, tail-chasing territory, ending up with the infamous drunken-driving incident that prompts another stern lecture from Bush Sr. (played by James Cromwell), who says derisively: "Who do you think you are, a Kennedy? You're a Bush. Act like one." To make sure we get the point, the scenes are accompanied by George Thorogood's version of the roadhouse standard "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer."

The music then shifts to the serene "It's a Wonderful World," which plays as the trailer poses a question that could perhaps make us curious enough to see the movie in a theater. It asks: "What Drove George W. Bush ... From Here ..." (Dubya brawling with his old man) "To Here?" (Dubya in the Oval Office, cowboy boots cockily propped up on his desk). Movie executives always preach, ad nauseam, that a successful film needs a hero who overcomes a series of obstacles, making him a very different person at film's end from what he was at the beginning. "W" sounds like it fits the bill quite nicely, as long as you grade on a curve when it comes to the part about overcoming the obstacles. 

Photo of George W. Bush by Evan Vucci / Associated Press

Comments

[Joe Bean]

It will be just a high cost boring movie. This is the same dude that did the Kennedy movie filled with undocumented facts. He is not interested in facts only money. I think this time he will be the looser. Kindest regards Joe

[Stephen Kriz]

How Bush, who has the longest criminal rap sheet of any president in U.S. history, got a free pass from the media wll be studied by historians for decades to come.

[joel palmer]

Without having seen the film I can confidently predict this: Stone will have gotten most of it wrong. It will be a vile film about a vile man. George W Bush and his satanic sidekick, Dick Cheney, have brought this nation to its knees in eight years.

It will be a decade or more befor e we recover, if we ever recover. This should have been a cautionary tale about the gullible American publican and the codependent media who gave GW a pass not once but twice, instead of eviscerating the ba$tard for what he is: a jocj sniffing, drunken frat boy with illusions of grandeur and a huge ego who was raised, coddled and propped up by his family all his life. Bush is a hemmorhoid of a man.

This film cannot possibly convey the evil that has been done to this country and the world by Bush and his cronies

[Joe Bean]

Stone is a looser. Remember the Kennedy movie? It was filled with undocumented statement passed on as truth. This dude is only making a movie for the money. This is fine but don't pass it off as true. He may even get sued. I think this movie will be a money looser and Soros will have to bail him out of trouble. Hell I guess I could wrie a script for a O Stone movie. Kindest regards Joe

[KERRY SHOULD HAVE WON]

Why OLIVER Why - BUSH doesn't deserve the attention

[Leif Jensen, Prescott, AZ]

Yawn...pssst, Bush is gone in January. Imagine what this talent and money could do if directed towards telling true stories about the greatness of America. Looks like anothers 'big' film from small people.

[Brady]

If this was a movie about Bill Clinton....I don't think there would be such an uproar....ohhh wait, liberal Hollywood doesn't make movies about their own in a negative light....do they?
His story would be much more interesting considering Oliver Stone is into conspiracy stuff. What about a movie based on the Clinton body count? What? To hot?

Be brave Oliver...do a hit piece on your own for a change!

[Tim Munoz]

Destine to bomb.

[Bruce]

I will see it...I will also know while enjoying it that Oliver makes stuff up and loves making fairy tales.

[Chad]

17 producers in the billing block. That has to be some sort of record.

Push pause at the 1:35 mark

1. Ethan Smith .... co-producer
2. Suzie Gilbert .... co- producer
3. Eric Kopeloff .... executive producer
4. Albert Yeung .... exectuive producer
5. Thomas Sterchi ... executive producer
6. Paul Hanson .... executive producer
7. Elliot Ferwerda .... executive producer
8. Jon Kilik .... executive producer
9. Tom Oternberg ....exectuive producer
10. Johnny Hon .... exectuive producer
11.Teresa Cheung .... executive producer
12. Christopher Mapp....executive producer
13. David Whealey ... executive producer
14. Matthew Street... exectuive producer
15. Peter Graves.... exectuive producer
16. Bill Block .... producer
17. Moritz Borman .... producer