Oliver Stone says it's too early to plan the Trump biopic
“I keep getting asked that question,” Oliver Stone laughed when Yahoo Entertainment caught up with him to talk about the 30th anniversary re-release of his seminal drama Wall Street.
We wanted to know if he’s already considered a biopic of President Trump, and apparently other people have as well.
“I think it’s a little too early,” he told us. “I don’t want to chase the news.”
A Stone-helmed bio of the businessman-turned-politician does feel inevitable, given the provocateur’s history of storytelling in both the worlds of business (Wall Street and its 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) and politics (JFK, Nixon, W.).
And though Trump’s presidency is less than a year old, there’s already plenty of material for Stone to mine. Trump’s administration has been mired in controversy, from a multitude of staff firings to divisive statements on Charlottesville and the NFL to the ongoing federal investigation of his team’s possible collusion with Russia in swaying the 2016 election.
“I’m trying to look for themes that interest me through time,” Stone explained. “How classically his administration works out, we’ll see. It’s too early to tell, though it’s certainly not taking a nice direction.”
Stone is also cautious to depict a sitting president, though he’s done it before. His 2008 drama W. was released in October 2008, with George W. Bush (portrayed by Josh Brolin in the film) still a couple months shy of departing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue after the election of Barack Obama.
But in that case, “[the story] ended in 2004 when he went into Iraq, so that river had already been crossed,” Stone said. “We made a defined ending in 2004 and we did it in 2008. And that was a push.”
“Trump’s just starting his first year,” Stone added. “We don’t want to make a Movie of the Week.”
Wall Street will be back in theaters nationwide on Wednesday (more information on showtimes here). Watch the trailer:
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