History will provide many interpretations of George W. Bush, his life & times. Here comes the cinematic version. Oliver Stone, a three-time Academy Award winning film director and screenwriter, is making a film on President George W. Bush (simply called W) and would be shot in Louisiana. Bush experts have already begun to dissect the screenplay.
W would come as a farewell gift to Mr Bush who could view it from the comfort of the White House before he leaves office next January. This is Stone’s third film about a US president, following Nixon and JFK.
“The director has been an outspoken critic of President Bush’s policy in Iraq. Mr Bush will be played by Josh Brolin (see photo above), who starred in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. Laura Bush is being played by Elizabeth Banks, who starred in The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” reports The Independent.
“The new film, W, portrays George Bush as a foul-mouthed, dried-out drunk with a baseball obsession and a difficult relationship with his father. The film will cover Mr Bush’s obsession with invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein – which Stone suggests is to avenge the Iraqi leader’s much ballyhooed assassination attempt on Bush Snr.
“It will also look at Mr Bush’s desperate hunt for WMDs in Iraq and his well known mangling of the English language. The script gives the impression that the White House is Mr Bush’s very own fraternity house where discussions about going to war sound like the staff are betting on a football game.”
William Oliver Stone was born in New York City. He grew up wealthy and lived in townhouses in Manhattan and Stamford, Connecticut. His father was a Jewish stockbroker and his mother a Roman Catholic of upper class French birth. He was raised an Episcopalian as a compromise but has since converted to Buddhism.
Stone’s famous quote: “I make my films like you’re going to die if you miss the next minute. You better not go get popcorn.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.