Oliver Stone Seeks to Film “Ahmadinejad’s Adventures”

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Filmmaker Oliver Stone is expected to visit Tehran in the near future to negotiate arrangements for a film about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian press reported last week.

“We have announced that he has asked for permission to travel to Iran for direct negotiations and to plan the project,” one official told the Tehran Times.

Stone first sought Iranian permission last summer to make the film, variously referred to as “Ahmadijenad’s Adventures” or “The Truth About Ahmadinejad.” His initial request was denied, but was then reconsidered and approved by the President himself “if certain conditions were met.”

Among such conditions, the Tehran Times reported, “Stone would not be allowed to invent any scenarios. [Instead,] he should only use incidents from the president’s real life in the film.”

See “Oliver Stone may visit Tehran for Ahmadinejad biopic: Sajjadpur,” Tehran Times, November 30.

News about the proposed film project “has amazed and worried many friends of Islamic Iran’s honour and power and those concerned about its reputation,” according to one Iranian commentator.

“How can one trust a person… who, despite efforts at proclaiming himself to represent the opposition in America’s ruling system, is in line and in accordance with the essence and the overall policies of this system,” wrote Elham Rajabpur in the conservative Tehran daily Keyhan.

The writer objected to several of Stone’s films including Alexander (“a hated figure among Iranians”) and The Doors (about “one of America’s perverted and half-mad singers”).

“We are afraid that the outcome of [Stone’s Iranian film] venture will not be the true and realistic portrayal of an intellectual and a peacemaker such as Ahmadinejad, but a portrayal of Ahmadinejad according to Stone, Hollywood, and global Zionism.”

See “Oliver Stone’s Presence in Iran: Opportunity or Threat” by Elham Rajabpur, Keyhan, December 3 (translated by the DNI Open Source Center).

Update: “A spokesman for Oliver Stone said today that the Oscar-winning director has ‘no plans at this time to go to Tehran,’ despite recent reports suggesting that he could soon be traveling to the Iranian capital for a project about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” the Los Angeles Times reported. See “Oliver Stone quashes Iran visit report” by Robert W. Welkos, December 7.