Update: Showtime have revealed that they have the rights to Stone’s film(s), which will be called “The Putin Interviews.” They’ll air across four nights between June 12th and June 15th, and you can watch a teaser trailer below.
The career of Oliver Stone has often been marked with uproar on the release of his films, whether it was his anti-war Vietnam picture “Born On The Fourth Of July,” the conspiracy theories put forth in “JFK” and “Nixon,” the debates over copycat killings on “Natural Born Killers,” his documentaries about Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, or George W. Bush biopic “W,” thinkpieces and controversy have often followed Stone as sure as night follows day.
More recently, Stone’s mostly been out of the outlines: “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and “Savages” were treated as pure genre exercises for the most part, and even last year’s “Snowden” was mostly ignored, despite the hot-button subject matter. But don’t expect that to be the case with the director’s newest project: a documentary about Vladimir Putin.
Stone first announced that he was working on a film about the Russian leader three years ago, but an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, picked up by The Hollywood Reporter, Stone confirms that the film is still in the works, that it’ll be released sometime soon (though no firm release date was given), and that he interviewed Putin four times over the last two years for the project.
READ MORE: Oliver Stone Explains Why He Wishes ‘JFK’ Had “Just Died Off”
Stone says that the film is intended to “prevent continued misunderstanding and a dangerous situation — on the brink of war. It’s not a documentary as much as a question-and-answer session.” He continues, “Mr. Putin is one of the most important leaders in the world and in so far as the United States has declared him an enemy — a great enemy — I think it’s very important we hear what he has to say… [The film] opens up a whole viewpoint that we as Americans haven’t heard. He talks pretty straight.”
Stone has defended Putin in the past, and last year produced a film called “Ukraine On Fire” that was accused of presenting a propagandist, pro-Russian point of view on the Ukraine revolution in 2014. But with Putin at present accused of interfering in last year’s election (and much more besides), and the conflict in Syria threatening to escalate, Stone showcasing Putin, who among many other elements restricts the free press, is accused of murdering journalists, and has had an oppressive effect on LGBT rights in Russia, is unlikely to go down well with the liberal press who usually have Stone’s back. But maybe he’ll win new fans with the Breitbart crowd? Either way, when the film premieres, perhaps during festival season in the fall, expect stormy headlines.