FIRST LOOK

First Look: Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as Mr. and Mrs. George W. Bush!

by Alex Billington
May 8, 2008
Source: EW.com

We already talked about the casting announcements and shared the comparison photos with you, but now it's time to actually see Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks as Mr. and Mrs. George W. Bush. The two are the frontrunners in Oliver Stone's biopic on on our 43rd President title simply W. I'm still baffled that we're even seeing this movie get made when Stone himself makes statements like this: "Bush may turn out to be the worst president in history. I think history is going to be very tough on him. But that doesn't mean he isn't a great story." Are you daring enough to take a glimpse at the newly reformed Brolin and Banks?

The Hollywood gurus over at EW.com present our very first look at Brolin and Banks in Stone's biopic. In addition to the glorious new cover photo below, the mag features an in-depth article covering all of the ins and outs of the production. Stone and company are currently in the midst of setting up down in Shreveport, Louisiana and are less than two weeks away from shooting the first frame, but that doesn't mean this film hasn't already garnered excessive attention.

Will update with higher res once we find a better version.

I'm not exactly looking forward to W., at least not a much as other Bush followers and movieogers. Part of my problem lies with the actors - they're too glorified to represent people I've come to dislike over the last eight years. Another part of the problem is as I just said, I'm not fond of Bush at all and I can't help but let politics creep in - especially when it comes to my interest in watching a movie about a man I've deemed an idiot. However, maybe I'm missing the big picture - maybe there is more to this movie than meets the eye (and I'm not talking about giant robots here).

As Kevin rightly pointed out previously, one draft of the screenplay leaked out a month back and was laughed at by journalists and critics. However, Stone explains that "it's gone through two rewrites since an earlier draft leaked" and that he would "still like one more pass at it," claiming that "it's evolving." Most of the cast has already been finalized, except Dick Cheney, and they're currently being outfitted with prosthetics and hairpieces in order to properly resemble their realistic counterparts.

Although I'm not yet sold, stories like this one are what capture my attention and actually force me to become interested as a big movie fan myself. "If that bootlegged script is any indication, the film will feature such flag-waving moments as the Commander-in-Chief nearly choking to death on a pretzel while watching football on TV and a flashback of him singing the 'Whiffenpoof' song as a frat pledge at Yale, not to mention scenes in which he refers to his advisers by dorky nicknames — 'Guru' for Condoleezza Rice, 'Turdblossom' for Karl Rove, 'Balloon Foot' for Colin Powell — while discussing plans for the invasion of Iraq with the coolness of a late-night poker game."

After hearing that, I'm thinking this could turn into an extended SNL sketch with Brolin instead of Darrell Hammond, but I know Stone won't take it that far. While I have started to gain a minimal amount of interest, I'm still not excited for this. I really don't know if Oliver Stone is as capable as Stephen Frears in creating a biopic on someone I don't care about yet find extremely entertaining within the confines of cinema like with The Queen.

I'm sure plenty of news reports and photos will be hitting the web from the sets down in Shreveport as they head into production, but until then, it's time to consider whether Brolin and Banks really were the right choices. If you're curious to read more, the lengthy article over at EW.com is a great read that gives you a true sense of the production on a whole and Stone's true idea for the film. In the meantime, it's time to open this to discussion. What do you think about these new photos?

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