Oliver Stone Sounds Off on ‘Idiots’ in Showbiz, ‘Nuclear Now’ Doc
variety.comChristopher Vourlias Oliver Stone settled into a sofa on the terrace of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cluj, Romania, apologizing for the jetlag and gazing at a downcast sky that had briefly parted over the Transylvanian hillside. “Let’s see if we can find some blue,” he said, describing himself — despite ample evidence to the contrary — as a “hopeful” person.
But after a week of steady downpours in this picturesque medieval city, the weather refused to cooperate. From the hotel terrace it was gray as far as the eye could see.
Stone was in Romania to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Transilvania Film Festival, which also programmed a small retrospective in honor of the three-time Academy Award-winning director including his latest film, the pro-nuclear-energy documentary “Nuclear Now,” which Variety’s Owen Gleiberman described as an “intensely compelling, must-see” doc after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year.
Before receiving the award, Stone sat down with Variety to discuss Hollywood’s long-running resistance to nuclear power, from fear-mongering movies such as “The China Syndrome” and “Silkwood” to the horror schlock of the 1950s, whose giant irradiated insects and mushroom clouds tapped into the subconscious fears of Americans in the nuclear age.
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