‘Citizen Stone’ Docuseries To Explore How ‘JFK’ Became A Megahit For Oliver Stone — And The Director’s “Unmaking”
EXCLUSIVE: Post-production is underway on Citizen Stone, an upcoming documentary series about the making of Oliver Stone’s groundbreaking film JFK — and how the movie ultimately became the director’s undoing.
Kristian Fraga of Sirk Productions is writing and directing the series. Emmy winner John Battsek of Ventureland is producing, along with Sirk Productions’ Marc Perez.
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“Crafted entirely from archival footage, much of which has never before been seen, the documentary is an exploration of acclaimed screenwriter, director, producer Oliver Stone, as seen through the creative process of bringing JFK, his most ambitious and polarizing motion picture, to life,” notes a release about the project.
JFK, released in 1991, starred Kevin Costner as real-life Orleans Parish District Attorney Jim Garrison, who pursued an investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy that ultimately assigned blame for JFK’s killing to a conspiracy involving New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw (Shaw was acquitted in a 1969 trial). An extraordinary cast signed up for Stone’s film; joining Costner on screen were Joe Pesci, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Sissy Spacek, John Candy, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, Laurie Metcalf, Tommy Lee Jones as Shaw and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald.
The film, which Stone said presented a “counter-myth” to the Warren Commission conclusion that Oswald acted alone in assassinating JFK, earned a stunning $280 million worldwide, according to one estimate, but it triggered a major backlash against the director, who was accused by some of giving an unwarranted platform to Garrison’s unproven allegations.
“The documentary details how, from the start of production, Oliver Stone and his cast and crew are confronted by a media blitz unprecedented in the annals of cinema history,” according to a description of the documentary series. “Throughout of the making and release of JFK, Stone, a twice wounded and decorated Vietnam Veteran, wages a battle against the mainstream media to defend his integrity and counter the constant attacks that threaten to derail his film.”
The release adds, “While the film could not be erased from existence, it could be marginalized, and the campaign against JFK tarnished Oliver Stone’s reputation in the United States and forever altered the trajectory of his career. Citizen Stone peels back the layers of where Hollywood, the media, and Washington intersect and highlights the unholy alliance between fact and fiction and the fight for who ‘owns’ history… Citizen Stone is about the making of an epic motion picture and the unmaking of one of cinema’s legendary directors.”
Per the release about the series, Stone is not involved in the documentary project, but did speak with Fraga “and has made himself available to the filmmaker for any required clarifications.”
Fraga said in a statement, “From 1986 to 1995 Oliver Stone put together one of the greatest runs of pictures in the history of cinema: Salvador, 1986; Platoon, 1986; Wall Street, 1987; Talk Radio, 1988; Born On the 4th of July, 1989; The Doors, 1991; JFK, 1991; Heaven & Earth, 1993; Natural Born Killers, 1994; and Nixon 1995. The style, scope, and impact of those films has earned Oliver Stone a seat at the table of the most influential directors. He redefined the way movies are shot, cut and mixed and 30 years on, he continues to evolve and develop other styles of filmmaking. Unfortunately, due to the controversy surrounding JFK much of his staggering filmography has been sidelined.”
Battsek, whose credits include One Day in September and Oscar winner Searching for Sugar Man, commented, “Oliver Stone’s movies made a huge impact on me as a young man growing up, and none more so than JFK. A film destined for controversy, it pushed the boundaries of visual language, and blurred the lines between fact and fiction with the use of Hollywood filmmaking and documentary footage seamlessly stitched together. Three decades on, to have the luxury to work with an extensive archive and look back on the films, the man and the cultural influence both on and off screen is a tantalizing prospect for me.”
Fraga added, “By going back to 1991 and showing audiences the price Oliver Stone paid for making JFK, I believe our film will not only illuminate where we’ve been, but also give clues as to how we got to the politically fractured and media saturated America of today.”
No release date or distribution plans for Citizen Stone have been disclosed.
Fraga, co-founder of Sirk Productions (a MetroMultimedia Company), directed the documentary trilogy My Dinner with Alan: A Sopranos Session, David Chase: A Sopranos Session, and The Last Supper: A Sopranos Session. His other credits include Severe Clear, winner of the Special Jury Prize for Cinematic Excellence at the Rome International Film Festival, and Anytown, USA.
Perez, Sirk’s co-founder, produced Severe Clear, Anytown, USA, the Sopranos Sessions, and directed the soon-to-be-released feature length documentary Unfightable.
John Battsek, who serves as Ventureland’s managing director, has produced numerous award-winning films and series, including PGA and BAFTA-nominated The Rescue; double Emmy Award-winning Rising Phoenix; Critics Choice nominee The Real Charlie Chaplin; Werner Herzog’s TIFF-selected documentary Theater of Thought; Mary McCartney’s directorial debut If These Walls Could Sing; Chris Smith’s Wham! for Netflix; Alex Gibney’s Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker for Apple TV+, The Deepest Breath, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival for Netflix, and National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. Ventureland just released Beckham, the David Beckham docuseries directed by Academy Award-winner Fisher Stevens for Netflix.
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