The White House and Columbia Pictures unite to destroy the film’s reputation
The film’s global profits were huge — five times bigger than its budget. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and sparked new interest in the John F. Kennedy assassination. However, film critics blasted Stone, saying “JFK” was everything from “an insult to the intelligence” to “absurd and barely watchable.”
Stone has called into question the baffling criticism “JFK” received after its release, calling it a “coordinated onslaught by a bunch of ninnies who type with two fingers.” There is no doubt the film is one of the best of the 1990s, if not the best film ever. Also, its claims that the Kennedy assassination was not carried out by one person, but rather a network of gangsters, communists, the CIA, the FBI and Vice President Lyndon Johnson are not really far-fetched and have been accepted by the majority of professional conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones.
The question: Were the film critics acting under the orders of President George Bush, a former central intelligence director himself who wanted the Warner Bros. production to flop so Bush could could get revenge on Ronald Reagan, whom he angrily served under as vice president and who had, in the 1930s and 40s, worked for Warner Bros. as an actor, and did Bush also receive a bribe from executives at Columbia Pictures who feared the folksy Kathy Bates vehicle “Fried Green Tomatoes,” released days after “JFK,” would be ignored in the wake of Stone’s thrilling masterpiece?
Richard Omega: “I give this theory 106% chance of being true. I have no doubt Bush was involved in slamming ‘JFK.’ That’s just what I would expect of him. As for Kathy Bates, she pretty much runs Hollywood from behind the scenes. Didn’t you see her in ‘Misery’? Man, she was scary. That lady could really rule with an iron fist.”
So, how much progress has Stone made?
Rumors are swirling about who will be cast to play Oliver Stone in “JFK II.” While many would like to see Stone himself reprise the role, it is more likely he will look for a younger actor with rising star power, such as Joel Edgerton, who played Tom Buchanan in “The Great Gatsby.” Some sources say Stone will look for a serious method actor, like Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is also possible he will settle on someone like Josh Brolin, who has a similar imposing brow.
According to L.A. Times entertainment reporter Glenn Blake, even though it’s in the early stages of pre-production, “JFK II” is already plagued by bizarre missteps. To ensure the secrecy of his project, Stone wrote the screenplay by hand, with every word composed backwards, leading 20th Century Fox executives to mistakenly call it “Iikfj”. Also, because Stone did rewrites in a secret damp cave — while he was naked to prevent himself from unwittingly housing surveillance devices in his clothes — he caught a terrible cold that required a visit to the hospital where he insisted doctors prove they weren’t working for the CIA by letting him inspect their fingernails and cell phones.