For Your Eyes Only: W

Yesterday, Steven Zeitchik of the Hollywood Reporter posted the first four pages of Oliver Stone's upcoming Bush biopic, W.

Though there's not a whole lot there, and it's taken from a draft that dates back to october 2007 (and as such, Zeitchik warns, has potentially gone through several iterations since), it can't help but be compelling - from the opening scene, in which then-Rangers shareholder Bush channels the weird bravado of Jake LaMotta looking into the mirror to a young, frat-pledging Bush mixing screwdrivers in a garbage can.

Of course, one of the highlights is a (probably) fictional roundtable meeting in the Oval Office, where the gang settles on 'Axis of Evil' and tries to figure out where Iran fits into everything.

An excerpt:

Rove opens a bottle of non-alcoholic beer for the President. Cheney finally chimes in.

CHENEY
Anyone can go to Baghdad.
Real men go to Tehran.

Bush smirks, clinks beer bottle with Cheney's coffee mug.

BUSH
Real men.

CUT TO:

A GIANT BOTTLE OF VODKA. INT. DKE FRAT HOUSE - BASEMENT - NIGHT - 1966

Once I got past how much this early draft really resembles some sort of parody, it finally occurred to me that Stone might be onto something pretty great after all: that Bush, when you strip him of all authority and real-life context, makes for a pretty compelling figure.