Exposure: Oliver Stone

It might sound like a case of history repeating itself – the kind of event traditionally associated with a failure to pay attention to what had gone before and the resulting consequences that follow.

During the 1988 Presidential election year, director Oliver Stone became linked to a prospective feature film called Company Man, about illegal arms dealing. The filmmaker found the notion of an Iran/Contra-like project fascinating, but felt he could only go forward on the condition it be released just prior to the national election in November. When that aspect could not be guaranteed, Stone, with some reluctance, abandoned the project.

With this year’s W., scheduled for a mid-October release, one might be tempted to draw a parallel with that still born earlier undertaking which, no doubt, would have fit nicely into Stone’s politically combustible canon of work. The same director, twenty years later, tackling an instantly controversial project about America’s standing commander-in-chief, with a plan to release the film just prior to this year’s polarized, and hotly-contested Presidential elections.  But not so: this time out Stone insists there is no mandate for releasing the picture to coincide with the election.  “A mandate is a requirement, and there was no such requirement with W. We have a very tight schedule for post, but I can only do the best I can with respect to making the scheduled release date.”

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