EXCLUSIVE: Put up-production is underway on Citizen Stone, an upcoming documentary sequence concerning the making of Oliver Stone’s groundbreaking movie JFK — and the way the film in the end changed into the director’s undoing.

Kristian Fraga of Sirk Productions is writing and directing the sequence. Emmy winner John Battsek of Ventureland is generating, along side Sirk Productions’ Marc Perez. 

“Crafted totally from archival pictures, a lot of which hasn’t ever prior to been noticed, the documentary is an exploration of acclaimed screenwriter, director, manufacturer Oliver Stone, as noticed throughout the ingenious strategy of bringing JFK, his maximum bold and polarizing movement image, to lifestyles,” notes a liberate concerning the mission.

JFK, launched in 1991, starred Kevin Costner as real-life Orleans Parish District Legal professional Jim Garrison, who pursued an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy that in the end assigned blame for JFK’s killing to a conspiracy involving New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Shaw used to be acquitted in a 1969 trial). An atypical forged signed up for Stone’s movie; becoming a member of Costner on display had been Joe Pesci, Donald Sutherland, Kevin publisher 1st baron verulam, Sissy Spacek, John Sweet, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, Laurie Metcalf, Tommy Lee Jones as Shaw and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald.

The movie, which Stone stated offered a “counter-myth” to the Warren Fee conclusion that Oswald acted on my own in assassinating JFK, earned a shocking $280 million international, in keeping with one estimate, nevertheless it caused a significant backlash towards the director, who used to be accused through a few of giving an unwarranted platform to Garrison’s unproven allegations.

“The documentary main points how, from the beginning of manufacturing, Oliver Stone and his forged and staff are faced through a media blitz unparalleled within the annals of cinema historical past,” in keeping with an outline of the documentary sequence. “During of the making and liberate of JFK, Stone, a two times wounded and adorned Vietnam Veteran, wages a combat towards the mainstream media to protect his integrity and counter the consistent assaults that threaten to derail his movie.”

The discharge provides, “Whilst the movie may just now not be erased from lifestyles, it may well be marginalized, and the marketing campaign towards JFK tarnished Oliver Stone’s recognition in america and perpetually altered the trajectory of his profession. Citizen Stone peels again the layers of the place Hollywood, the media, and Washington intersect and highlights the unholy alliance between truth and fiction and the combat for who ‘owns’ historical past… Citizen Stone is concerning the making of an epic movement image and the unmaking of one in every of cinema’s mythical administrators.”

In step with the discharge concerning the sequence, Stone isn’t concerned within the documentary mission, however did talk with Fraga “and has made himself to be had to the filmmaker for any required clarifications.”

Fraga stated in a remark, “From 1986 to 1995 Oliver Stone put in combination one of the vital largest runs of images within the historical past of cinema: Salvador, 1986; Platoon, 1986; Wall Boulevard, 1987; Communicate Radio, 1988; Born At the 4th of July, 1989; The Doorways, 1991; JFK, 1991; Heaven & Earth, 1993; Herbal Born Killers, 1994; and Nixon 1995. The manner, scope, and affect of the ones motion pictures has earned Oliver Stone a seat on the desk of essentially the most influential administrators. He redefined the best way films are shot, lower and combined and 30 years on, he continues to adapt and expand different types of filmmaking. Sadly, because of the debate surrounding JFK a lot of his staggering filmography has been sidelined.”

Battsek, whose credit come with One Day in September and Oscar winner In search of Sugar Guy, commented, “Oliver Stone’s films made an enormous affect on me as a tender guy rising up, and none extra so than JFK. A movie destined for controversy, it driven the bounds of visible language, and blurred the traces between truth and fiction with the usage of Hollywood filmmaking and documentary pictures seamlessly stitched in combination. 3 a long time on, to have the posh to paintings with an intensive archive and glance again at the motion pictures, the person and the cultural affect each off and on display is a tantalizing prospect for me.”

Fraga added, “Through going again to 1991 and appearing audiences the cost Oliver Stone paid for making JFK, I imagine our movie won’t best remove darkness from the place we’ve been, but in addition give clues as to how we were given to the politically fractured and media saturated The us of these days.”

No liberate date or distribution plans for Citizen Stone were disclosed. 

Fraga, co-founder of Sirk Productions (a MetroMultimedia Corporate), directed the documentary trilogy My Dinner with Alan: A Sopranos Consultation, David Chase: A Sopranos Consultation, and The Final Supper: A Sopranos Consultation. His different credit come with Serious Transparent, winner of the Particular Jury Prize for Cinematic Excellence on the Rome World Movie Competition, and Anytown, USA.

Perez, Sirk’s co-founder, produced Serious Transparent, Anytown, USA, the Sopranos Classes, and directed the soon-to-be-released characteristic period documentary Unfightable.

John Battsek, who serves as Ventureland’s managing director, has produced a large number of award-winning motion pictures and sequence, together with PGA and BAFTA-nominated The Rescue; double Emmy Award-winning Emerging Phoenix; Critics Selection nominee The Actual Charlie Chaplin; Werner Herzog’s TIFF-selected documentary Theater of Concept; Mary McCartney’s directorial debut If Those Partitions May just Sing; Chris Smith’s Wham! for Netflix; Alex Gibney’s Growth! Growth! The International vs Boris Becker for Apple TV+, The Private Breath, which premiered on the Sundance Movie Competition for Netflix, and Nationwide Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The Other folks’s President, which premiered on the Venice World Movie Competition. Ventureland simply launched Beckham, the David Beckham docuseries directed through Academy Award-winner Fisher Stevens for Netflix.