Entertainment Weekly has scored the first pictures of Josh Brolin in full makeup as President George W. Bush for director Oliver Stone’s upcoming Bush bio-pic W and man, is it an eerie resemblance. Elizabeth Banks as First Lady Laura Bush looks pretty close to the real deal, too. They both have that smug, condescension-barely-held-in-check, not-quite-a-smile thing down pat.
Beyond the cover photo, next week’s issue of the magazine will feature a six page spread on the film, which begins filming in two weeks in Louisiana.
While some are expecting (or hoping) that the famously liberal Stone is setting about to do the first cinematic hatchet job on a seated president, he tells EW that is intrigued by Bush’s life story, drawing rather interesting cinematic and literary parrallels.
”Bush may turn out to be the worst president in history,” he declares as he peeks into room after room. ”I think history is going to be very tough on him. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a great story. It’s almost Capra-esque, the story of a guy who had very limited talents in life, except for the ability to sell himself. The fact that he had to overcome the shadow of his father and the weight of his family name — you have to admire his tenacity. There’s almost an Andy Griffith quality to him, from A Face In The Crowd. If Fitzgerald were alive today, he might be writing about him. He’s sort of a reverse Gatsby.”