Oliver Stone, the two Oscar-winning filmmaker (Platoon, in 1986, and Born on the Fourth of July, in 1989), is critical of the current state of affairs in Hollywood, claiming the town has gone “mad.”
Photo: Born on the Fourth of July
Talking to the New York Times Magazine for a recently published interview with David Marchese, the controversial Stone called modern moviemaking “ridiculous.”
“It’s just so expensive — the marketing,” Stone began. “Everything has become too fragile, too sensitive. Hollywood now — you can’t make a film without a COVID adviser. You can’t make a film without a sensitivity counselor. It’s ridiculous.”
The politically oriented granted the interview to discuss his upcoming memoir, Chasing the Light.
“The Academy changes its mind every five, 10, two months about what it’s trying to keep up with,” Stone told the magazine. “It’s politically correct [expletive], and it’s not a world I’m anxious to run out into. I’ve never seen it quite mad like this. It’s like an Alice in Wonderland tea party.”
Photo: World Trade Center
Asked to elaborate, Stone explained, “You know, I just read something about how films are going to be very expensive to make now, because you need to take all these precautions, and a 50-day shoot becomes a 60-day shoot, and social distancing for actors. That’s what I’m talking about.”
But Stone is not done completely with making movies, saying he is in the midst of a couple of documentaries. “One is on J.F.K. Since the film came out in 1991, there’s been quite a bit of new material revealed that people have basically ignored. It’s a hell of a story.”
The other, a documentary, A Bright Future, will focus on the clean energy, including nuclear energy, said the director, adding, “These are documentary subjects and aren’t necessarily going to be popular, but they’re important to me.”