Elizabeth Banns is in final talks to portray First Lady Laura Bush alongside Josh Brolin’s President Bush in the Oliver Stone biopic “W.”
Elizabeth Banks is in final negotiations to play First Lady Laura Bush in director Oliver Stones George W. Bush biopic, “W,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Josh Brolin is already on board to play Bush.
Stone wrote the screenplay with his “Wall Street” co-writer Stanley Weiser. The film will focus on the life and presidency of George W. Bush and Stone is set to adopt a “behind-the-scenes approach.”
In January, Stone told Daily Variety that this biopic would offer moviegoers “a fair, true portrait” of the current occupant of the White House, which “will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors.”
“It's a behind-the-scenes approach, similar to ‘Nixon,’ to give a sense of what it's like to be in his skin,” Stone told Daily Variety, adding, “I'm a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great.”
He did not share his personal opinion of the president with the publication, explaining, “I can't give you that, because the filmmaker has to hide in the work. Here, I'm the referee, and I want a fair, true portrait of the man.”
The Academy Award winner said his film would investigate the turning points in Bush’s life, “the demons in his private life,” his relationship with his father, President George H. W. Bush and his conversion to Christianity, among others.
The film’s producers will be Moritz Borman, who worked with Stone on “World Trade Center” and “Alexander,” and John Kilik, who also produced “Alexander” and “Pinkville,” a project whose production United Artists canceled in December in the wake of the Hollywood writers’ strike.
Elizabeth Banks previously appeared in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Spider-Man.” She recently finished Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” She next appears in the Eddie Murphy comedy “Meet Dave” and in “Bill” with Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting on “W” is scheduled to start in late April.