Posted on 01/27/2005 4:19:50 AM PST by gobucks
Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone has lashed out at US television, calling network executives "appalling cowards" who do not allow programme-makers to take risks.
Mr Stone was attending the London premiere of his £80m epic movie Alexander last night - which sparked controversy in the US for portraying the Macedonian warrior king as bisexual - when he spoke out about the state of American TV.
When asked by reporters whether the film would have been better suited to the small screen, he said: "You can't be controversial on TV, you'd get killed in America."
Mr Stone said a TV series he made about the TWA 800 flight from New York to Paris that exploded shortly after takeoff in July 1996, killing all 230 people on board, was "cancelled rather suddenly".
"I've had big problems with TV. Television is not easy to get done, especially since the corporate climate in America is such that risk is averted at all costs. The constant back-peddling of TV executives is appalling and it is cowardice," added Mr Stone.
Moritz Borman, the producer of Alexander, took the opportunity of the London premiere to reveal he wanted to create a "dumbed down" version of the film for US audiences but Stone would not have let him do it.
"We always knew America would be more difficult for this kind of material," said Mr Borman.
"Do you have two versions? A lighter, shorter, popcornier, simple version for American audiences that takes out the homosexuality and a more sophisticated one for the rest of the world? Advertiser links Buy Theater Ticket
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"In retrospect I would have said 'let's do that'. Oliver wouldn't have let me but I'd have tried."
Mr Stone's career as a film and TV director, producer and screenwriter, spanning more than 30 years, has generated more controversy than most.
His work, including JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon and Platoon, has been attacked as the work of a conspiracy theorist obsessed by American foreign policy and distorting history. He has been demonised by the American press for not fitting the traditional Hollywood mould.
But Mr Stone has won two Academy Awards for directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, and remains one of America's most prolific film-makers. However, Alexander is unlikely to boost his credentials after being labelled a turkey by the critics.
Mr Stone has blamed the bad reviews and poor box office taking in the US on attitudes towards homosexuality.
He said: "Sexuality is a large issue in America right now but it isn't so much in other countries... From day one audiences didn't show up. They didn't even read the reviews in the south because the media was using the words 'Alex is gay'.
"As a result you can bet that they [film-goers] thought 'we're not going to see a film about a military leader who has got something wrong with him. General [Norman] Schwarzkopf and General Tommy Francis are not gay.'"
I have to go to work rather suddenly. But, though it was common knowledge about all this Gay stuff, and his preoccupation with it, I didn't know he was delving into TWA 800, or that he was involved in a tv project ....
The left eats their own.
Tasty!
:)
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
"General Tommy Francis"; should be Franks...
"Mr Stone has blamed the bad reviews and poor box office taking in the US on attitudes towards homosexuality."
One more time... your movie failed because it sucked. Quit blaming others for your failure.
I don't blame the Clinton adminstration for Covering up TWA. By covering it up, they denied a terrorist group the attention they thrive on.
I blame them for not doing anything about it afterward.
Only to his friends ;) And that's Thomas Francis
The Clinton White House was incompetant from the top down.
Oliver Stone simply doesn't understand (or pretends he doesn't). Television execs are not in it to bravely air controversial pieces. They are in it to make money.
Leftists like Oliver Stone don't understand that the vast majority of Americans don't want to be confronted with controversial documentaries or peppered with one activist agenda after another 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
No,what socialists can`t understand is that in a market system if you sell or promote something that people don`t want or agree with,guess what,it fails.
TWA 800 "It wasn't terrorists. It couldn't have been."
ML/NJ
That is an unfair criticism. Stone fits the Hollywood tradition quite well. He's a pompus, self-absorbed, spoiled, head case.
Oliver Stone made a documantary about TWA 800!?! If anyone knows more about this, please post it.
Dude, that's nasty.
That's why I believe-and I may be alone in this opinion-that "Tupac: Resurrection" deserves to win the "Best Documentary" award at this year's Oscars, instead of that tendentious, hackneyed piece of leftist tripe, "Supersize Me."
Thank you! Very interesting....
I don't know how to break this to you, Oliver...but it's just the opposite.
"They didn't even read the reviews in the south because the media was using the words 'Alex is gay'."
Stone's never heard of Key West, New Orleans, Asheville, Savannah, or South Beach.
You forgot to make note of all those raging homophobes currently living in San Francisco and New Paltz.
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