May 8, 2008

Exit right.

EW: W "Wow! Josh Brolin Makes a Convincing George W Bush!" exclaims Elizabeth Rappe at Cinematical. For Entertainment Weekly, Benjamin Svetkey watches Oliver Stone rush W into production.

Roger Ebert's been wondering "how you could make a movie of this primary campaign," specifically, the story of "Hillary and Bill": "But where is the story?... The problem with a screenplay based on these events is that there would be a merciless sameness. Where is the drama in the story of a game of 48 innings?" And then he finds it: "The campaign was not about political positions, but about sheer desire. Hillary wanted to win, and she ran and ran and ran until there was a kind of heroism to it. Futile heroism after a point, but that's where the story lies."

Updated through 5/13.

This, in other words, is not what he has in mind. And, as Leslie Wayne reported for the New York Times' Caucus back in February, those right-wing attack dogs Citizens United are planning to make a "Movie" about Barack Obama, too. Chances are, this is not the one that'll star Will Smith.

Via fishbowlNY, CNN's Ed Henry reports: "In a heated phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late last month, Hillary Clinton supporter Harvey Weinstein threatened to cut off campaign money to congressional Democrats unless Pelosi embraced a new plan by the movie mogul to finance a revote of the Democratic presidential primaries in Florida and Michigan, according to three officials who were briefed on the contents of the conversation."

Updates, 5/9: Online viewing tip. Gabriel Wardell: "This may be the cruelest, albeit funniest, political commentary I've seen."

At As Little As Possible, JJ has a clip and comments: "The comparisons were made when The Manchurian Candidate remake first came out in the summer of 2004, but Hillary Clinton and fictional entity Sen Eleanor Shaw have become even more alike as the real-life senator continues her crusade to win the Democratic nomination for president."

Update, 5/12: "My previous blog item, 'Hillary and Bill: The Movie,' has inspired a lot of comments, and some of them utterly baffle me," writes Roger Ebert. "I think those comments do, however, reveal something about how we watch movies."

Update, 5/13: "The about-as-cool-as-cool-can-get Scott Glenn has been cast to play the about-as-uncool-as-uncool-can-get Donald Rumsfeld in Oliver Stone's W," reports Merrick at AICN.

Posted by dwhudson at May 8, 2008 12:19 PM