ACADEMY Award winning director Oliver Stone will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 12th Mumbai Film Festival today.
“He has never hesitated to tackle any issue however touchy it is. He definitely deserves all our respect,” Srinivasan Narayanan, the festival director, told reporters. “He is one of the most prolific film makers we have today.
Stone’s last film, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to his 1987 classic, Wall Street, did modest business.
The director said he had expected some people would be disappointed.
“I think it might disappoint some people that it’s not the old Wall Street but I would never remake that film. This is the new Wall Street and it’s worse in many ways. It’s harder,” he said.
Stone has won three Oscars in a career spanning three decades, exploring themes like war, greed and politics.
The 64-year-old film maker, who says his main purpose for the visit to India is to introduce local audiences to his 2004 epic Alexander, screened a re-cut version of the film, running into four hours yesterday.
“Alexander is a three-year long effort, and the new version changes the structure of the film – gives them a chance to understand the relationships in the film,” Stone told a news conference.
The film – which starred Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell and Anthony Hopkins, parts of which were filmed in India – received a mixed response when it released in 2004.
The 12th Mumbai Film Festival opened on October 21 with David Fincher’s The Social Network.
