As if there weren't already enough controversy surrounding the filming of Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, some of the actors and film crew from W. went and got themselves arrested during a bar brawl in Shreveport, Louisiana last Saturday morning. There's an old saying in Hollywood: "The cast that fights together stays together." Okay, there's no such saying. But after this, maybe it will catch on.

Tags: George W. Bush, Jeffrey Wright, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Oliver Stone, W.

Casting for Ollie Stone's George W. Bush biopic has taken a turn for the Beloved. Stone, in his infinite wisdom, cast Thandie Newton in the role of Condoleeza Rice. This is a major step up from being the lust object of Eddie Murphy's Norbit and Simon Pegg's running fat boy. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Stone's screenplay has numerous scenes where the beautiful Ms. Newton can shine as Condi. There's just one problem: Thandie Newton can't act her way out of a paper bag. She's astonishingly beautiful, but constantly being cast in heavy roles she can't handle. It's like casting Elmo as Hamlet. Stone might be able to wring a good performance out of her, provided he can stop imposing his directorial will on every frame of the film, wrestling attention away from the actors as he usually does.

Newton may share the screen with fellow Brit Ioan Gruffudd, whom Stone, in his finite wisdom, cast as Tony Blair. Gruffud looks less like Blair than Newton does Condi, but I'm sure they can La Vie En Rose both of them to the point where the makeup wins the Best Visual Effects Oscar. In fact, this will have to be done to the entire cast, as James Brolin doesn't look anything like a certain C student from Yale. There's just one problem with the Blair casting, and stop me if you've heard this before: Ioan Gruffudd can't act. Granted, not even Olivier in his prime could have made the Fantastic Four dialogue work, so perhaps I'm being too hard on him.

Neither Dick Cheney nor Karl Rove have been cast, but I'm expecting Stone to do something wacky there too. I sat here thinking who would make good casting for Rove and Cheney, but my brain kept conjuring up Satan and Elmer Fudd with spectacles and a quail. So I'm going to leave it up to the readers. Who'd make a good Cheney? I can see Stone casting one of his former stars like Sir Tony Hopkins, though he'd make a better toe-tapping Larry Craig, along with Bill Pullman in old man makeup as John McCain.

If nothing else, I'm dying to hear the TV commercial announcer say the movie's title and its MPAA rating. It's going to sound like the end of Sesame Street. "W is brought to you by the letters P, and G, and the number 13."

Tags: Oliver Stone, W

If, while reading today, you notice a stray u in words like "colour" and "honour," or you realise that "realize" is spelled with an s, do not adjust your browsers! Movies Without Pity has gone global! I'm reporting to you live from Birmingham, England, where I've been working for the last eight days. Whilst here in the Midlands, I shall visit Mr. Craig's onscreen persona when Quantum of Solace opens on Halloween (more on that next week). I'll also visit his actual persona to see if I can take that free Aston Martin off his hands. One major plus to being here is that I can escape the bombardment of political commercials currently clogging up my TV at home. Unfortunately, I can't escape the candidates nor the election, which leads me to an article in The Guardian about celebrities and politics.

Tags: Falling Down, James Bond, politics, Quantum of Solace, The View, United Kingdom, W.

Oliver Stone is showing off his version of George W. Bush via a spread in Entertainment Weekly. It might seem a little premature when you consider that Stone says the script is "still evolving" and he's yet to cast someone in the role of Dick Cheney. Maybe his hope is that the early showcase will inspire some actor to step up to the plate -- and soon. After all, Stone is aiming for a release date a mere five months from now in order to hit movie screens before the November elections. Newsflash: People are already getting burnt out on politics; by fall, they'll be willing to shell out money to not sit through another two hours of it.

Tags: Josh Brolin, Oliver Stone, W

Almost everyone is feeling the effects of the economic downturn (to put it mildly), and we all know it's had its effects on the movie industry, what with changes in spending habits and budgets -- not to mention the writers' strike and the possible actors' strike. But there has been another side effect of the economy on Hollywood: how to schedule, release, and market movies about the economy, Wall Street, or frivolous spending.

Tags: economy, Isla Fisher, Shopaholic, Stanley Weiser, Touchstone, W., Wall Street, Wall Street 2

Mark Wahlberg's videogame adaptation Max Payne managed to unseat Beverly Hills Chihuahua after the talking-dog movie had been at the top of the weekend box office for two weeks in a row. But no other new release did better than a third helping of Chihuahua. I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with me for not thinking that movie could possibly be good. But I'm going to stick with what I said last week: The problem lies with America.

Tags: Beverly Hills Chihuahua, box office, Max Payne, Sex Drive, The Secret Life of Bees, W.

Here are some of the top movie-related stories from Movies Without Pity this week:

Marky Mark's House of Payne -- We hypothesize Marky Mark's rap soundtrack to Mark Wahlberg's Max Payne. Tighty-whiteys not included.

Alan Moore Endorses Watchmen Movie! -- ...Yeah, that's an old headline from 1987. But apparently, he was totally on board back then.

Raaarrrgh! Hulk DVD Smash Expectations! -- The Incredible Hulk DVD comes out on Tuesday, and we tell you what you need to know before you go and buy it.

W.: Oliver Stone's Conspiracy Notebook -- Ollie Stone is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, and thinks the cast of W. is out to get him, if his set diary is any indication.

Star Trek Movie Images Explode like the U.S.S. Reliant -- J.J. Abrams has set off a clusterbomb of Trek movie pictures. Never before has a blurry picture of Scott delighted so many. (Okay, me.)

Quentin Tarantino's Sex Drive -- Did you know QT wrote the original screenplay for Sex Drive? Neither did we! Or anyone else. (It's not true.)

Dan and Zach Talk About Watchmen -- Not a sequel to Zack and Miri Make a Porno, but judging by how turned-on they are by 25 minutes of Watchmen footage, it might as well be.

Tags: Hulk, J.J. Abrams, Max Payne, Sex Drive, Star Trek, The Incredible Hulk, W., Watchmen

The always amusing Oliver Stone has rounded out more of the cast for his film W, telling the story of President Bush's formative years. Since that is the time period, the casting of Josh Brolin as Dubya and Elizabeth Banks as Laura makes more sense. To play the elder Bushes, Stone has picked James Cromwell as George H.W. and Ellen Burstyn as Barbara. Who knows what Stone has up his sleeve, but it could turn out well. I liked his Nixon, especially Anthony Hopkins's performance since Hopkins, like Philip Baker Hall in Robert Altman's great Secret Honor, didn't try to do an imitation and ended up being more successful at capturing Tricky Dick's essence. Too often, of late, mimicry has been substituted for actual acting (I'm looking in your general direction, Marion Cotillard). Still, I am disappointed that Stone isn't planning to cover the past seven years of Dubya's administration, because I have an off-the-wall casting suggestion for Dick Cheney: Larry David. Really, David's version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm resembles Cheney in the way his intentions usually result in chaos, though at least Larry's heart is usually in the right place. Besides, Stone usually provides lots of laughs, at least when he's not trying to be funny (take Natural Born Killers -- please). I know that many would argue that there is nothing to laugh about concerning the missions accomplished and not accomplished by the Bush administration. Still, I have to paraphrase Albert Brooks's line in Broadcast News after his disastrous stint hosting the weekend news: At some point, the Bush administration got so off-the-chart bad, it just got funny.

Tags: Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, James Cromwell, Josh Brolin, Larry David, Oliver Stone, W