TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- President Ahmadinejad’s advisor said that the required arrangements have been taken at Iran’s embassy in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, to issue an entry visa for the US film director, Oliver Stone, who plans to make a documentary about the Iranian president.“Oliver Stone is willing to visit Iran and the necessary arrangements have been made at Iran’s embassy in Abu Dhabi in a bid to facilitate issuance of an entry visa for Stone,” Javad Shamaghdari told FNA.
Asked to comment on a recent statement made by the director’s spokesman Steven Rubenstein that Stone has put on hold the documentary about Ahmadinejad’s life, Shamaghdari said, “We don’t know if the Los Angeles Times article is based on correct information or not.”
“As far as we know through Mr. Stone’s manager, this filmmaker is still willing to travel to Iran,” he added.
“Oliver Stone’s manager last contacted us on December 5 and told us that he is on a strike and has, thus, put on hold the production of his last film and it is now a proper opportunity for Stone to take a trip to Iran before he starts his new cine movie called ‘ Pinkville’,” the presidential advisor said.
Stone’s spokesman said last month that the US director had postponed plans for a film about the Iranian president and was instead focusing his energies on a film about Vietnam, Pinkville.
“The Iran project might be taken up again in future,” spokesman Steven Rubenstein told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), without elaborating.
A week prior to this change of plans, Ahmadinejad’s art adviser Shamaghdari said that the president would consider allowing a film about himself – under certain conditions. The director would first have to show him the screenplay and explain the real aims of the film, which should be a documentary without any fictional scenes.
Stone visited Vietnam in November to research his new film, visiting a museum commemorating the massacres at My Lai, which US soldiers razed in March, 1968, killing between 300 and 500 civilians.
The massacres, which led to a military investigation and trial and helped break the American public’s support for the war, will be the subject of the movie.