Oliver Stone preps Hugo Chavez documentary

Oliver Stone will continue his infamous tradition of films about real-world political figures with a new documentary about Hugo Chavez, the flashpoint Venezuela president whose influence the United States has publicly tried to subdue in recent years.

The news comes after Stone blithely weathered the fallout from his breezy Bush biopic W. and a wave of publicity after the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, turned down his request to make a documentary about him. (Ahmadinejad acknowledged Stone’s rebel status in his profession but said he was still part of “the Great Satan,” to which Stone famously said he hoped that the Iranian "experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.”)

True to form, Stone will focus his Chavez documentary on the leftist president’s vast opposition, and he will have plenty of material: Chavez recently introduced legislation that would allow him to remain in office until 2019. Stone has already spent considerable time with Chavez over the last several months, and his film is slated to be finished this year.

Related links:
Review: W.
Feature: Pretenders in Chief: Paste Casts the Presidents
News: Oliver Stone casts Brolin, Banks, Cromwell for W.

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