Oliver Stone lived his heyday as one of the most celebrated directors in Hollywood with his acclaimed titles, including Wall Street and Kevin Costner-starrer JFK. Stone, who also has two Oscars to his credit for directing Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, however, found himself amid an investigation.
A report published by a team of investigative journalists from Europe links the acclaimed director to real dictators as Stone was allegedly roped in to whitewash a few dictators in a series of documentaries. Stone finally broke his silence over the matter.
A Report Linked Oliver Stone With Real Dictators
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) alongside a few European outlets organized an investigation against the celebrated director Oliver Stone. The investigation found that he was exclusively linked with a series of unmade documentary projects that would be based on real dictators including Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (per The Hollywood Reporter).
According to the report, Russian American producer Igor Lopatonok pitched a series of soapy documentaries on the aforementioned leaders where Stone was set to star as the on-air interviewer. Responding to the allegation, Stone finally broke his silence as THR reached out to the director via email, he replied:
“For the record, I’m clarifying several mistakes made in a recent report about my involvement on three documentary films. I worked with Igor Lopatonok on the documentaries Ukraine on Fire and Revealing Ukraine as Executive Producer and interviewer (Igor was the director), both of which cast a clarifying light on a war I believe was misreported in the U.S. for propaganda reasons.”
Stone’s stance on the allegations was clear as he claimed that he was not involved in such projects. But, the director and Lopatonok previously declined to comment on the allegations when the investigative team reached out to them.
Oliver Stone Addressed The Accusation
Lopatonok has been a long-time collaborator of Stone as the director has swiftly shifted towards directing or starring in documentaries more often than his endeavor on screen with intense drama. Stone appeared as an on-air interviewer in Lopatonok-directed Ukraine on Fire and Revealing Ukraine, and Qazaq: History of the Golden Man. “To clarify, I was not the director on Qazaq. My involvement on the project was limited,” Stone told THR.
“Aside from these documentaries, I passed on the proposed film about Lukashenko of Belarus and have not approved and was not aware of any other pitches to world leaders.”
The director went on to add that he has advocated peace and justice rather than the glorification of war.
“In all of my films and documentaries since the 1980s, I have consistently worked toward a goal of peace and justice — not war or injustice — between all countries. For those who accuse without bothering to look at the work in question, the proof of this should be evident in the films I’ve made, even when they clash with U.S. establishment’s point-of-view.”
As retrieved by THR, a fraction of the information from the report revealed that Stone was aware of these projects. However, the Snowden director backed out of a project on Belarus dictator Lukashenko.
