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More of the cast has been announced in the latest Oliver Stone film, “W” – about current U.S. President George W. Bush.

Ew.com reports that Elizabeth Banks will portray Laura Bush opposite James Brolin, who will portray Bush. James Cromwell is said to be in talks to portray George H.W. Bush. There have been no announcements as to who will play vice-president Dick Cheney.

Stone is well-known for making films that normally have to deal with conspiracy theories, and ones that are typically anti-government. His most famous film in this category is “JFK,” which dealt with the conspiracies floating around about who really shot the former U.S. president.

Stone has said that “W” will not be a controversial movie, but rather one that looks at how Bush went from a college party boy to the leader of the free world. He also said that it will be “a fair, true portrait of the man.”

Shooting is set to begin late next month.

Director Oliver Stone, a noted critic of George W. Bush, says he is developing a movie about the president.

Stone has spoken out in the past against Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, but says he wants his film — titled “Bush” — to paint a “fair, true portrait” of the soon-to-be ex-head-of-state.

“How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?” Stone said. “It’s like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I’ll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from.

“It includes his belief that God personally chose him to be president of the United States, and his coming into his own, with the stunning, pre-emptive attack on Iraq. It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors.”

Stone is in talks with Josh Brolin (”No Country For Old Men”) to play the title role.

“(He) has the same drive and charisma that Americans identify with Bush, who has some of that old-time movie-star swagger,” said Stone.

If he gets financing, the movie would start shooting in April and could hit theatres by Election Day or by the next president’s inaugaration.

Stone has previously helmed movies about historical figures including Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon and Alexander the Great.

“I’m a dramatist who is interested in people,” Stone said, “and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison and Alexander the Great.”

The man that brought famous U.S presidents, Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, to life on the big screen, now has big plans for a biopic of George W. Bush.

Oliver Stone says he wants to cast Josh Brolin as the controversial political figure in the film that will chronicle Bush’s rise to power.

The film won’t be full of Bush-bashing, Stone told Variety, but instead the director will focus on aspects of the president’s personal life as well as his political career.

“How did Bush go from an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world? It’s like Frank Capra territory on one hand, but I’ll also cover the demons in his private life, his bouts with his dad and his conversion to Christianity, which explains a lot of where he is coming from,” CBC.ca reports Stone said to Variety.

While the film does have a script, written by Stanley Weiser before the writer’s strike, it is still in its early stages as Stone has yet to find financial backing.

Director Oliver Stone, known for his gripping dramas, is putting himself in the middle of a real-life rescue operation.

Stone has been spotted in Venezuela alongside President Hugo Chavez, who is negotiating a possible release of three hostages held by leftist rebels in Colombia.

The Oscar-winning director says he is working on a documentary about Latin America and North America, and hopes to accompany the humanitarian mission into Colombia as an observer, calling it a “beautiful, great process.”

Standing near Chavez, Stone said the president is a “great man” and that “I’m a fan.”

On his part, Chavez urged Stone to speak with reporters and told him: “The girls want to see you!”

Chavez, who famously called U.S. President Bush “the devil,” also joked that Stone was Bush’s “envoy.”

“There are some good Americans. That’s why I’m here, to remind you,” Stone said.

Chavez revealed that Stone was in Venezuela on Thursday and that he and the director had met for two hours.

“He’s going around doing research. He says he wants to know and learn deeply the history of these nations,” Chavez said. “He’s an anti-imperialist, Oliver Stone. He’s a good man.”

This is not Stone’s first encounter with a country’s leader – he made a 2003 documentary about Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Director Oliver Stone has announced that he will follow-up his controversial drama “World Trade Center” with a film about the American-led war in Afghanistan and the search for Osama bin Laden.

Reuters reports that the new movie will be partly based on “Jawbreaker,” a recent book that traces the search for the world’s most wanted man, along with a chronicle of American attacks on al Qaeda forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan.

The book carries its own controversy, as it suggests that the U.S. fumbled an opportunity to capture bin Laden.

Stone said that he’d apply the same treatment to the “Jawbreaker” story as he did to “World Trade Center,” aiming to “create compelling drama, not a polemic.”

No casting decisions have been announced, and no production dates have been set.

According to the “Globe and Mail,” director Oliver Stone was greeted with a standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday to preview 25 minutes from his new, controversial film, “World Trade Center” (opening Aug. 9).

The clip was from the beginning of the movie and preceded the 20th anniversary showing of his movie “Platoon” starring Charlie Sheen.

However, most of the audience left after “World Trade Center.”

“It’s the true story of two New York Port Authority policemen who were trapped in the rubble, their wives and their children, and the incredible and almost improbable rescue efforts that went on to save them,” Stone said, in his introduction to the clip.

“World Trade Center” is the second Hollywood film to be made about the 9/11 attacks, “United 93″ about the passengers aboard the flight that crashed into a Pennsylvania field, was released earlier this year.