Oliver Stone to show "Secret History of America"
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Film director Oliver Stone has a secret -- 10, at least -- and he is about to tell some them in a new documentary for U.S. cable television.
Stone, whose films such as "Nixon" have focused on controversial people and events, is now shooting the 10-part nonfiction series about unknown moments in U.S. history for the Showtime cable network called "Oliver Stone's Secret History of America," set to debut in 2010.
In the 1980s, Stone won Oscars for Vietnam War films "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," but later drew criticism for his take on history in the movie "JFK" and for his documentary about Cuban leader Fidel Castro, "Comandante."
Topics for this new documentary will range from the reasons behind the Cold War with the Soviet Union, U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, and changes in America's global role since the fall of Communism.
Stone said he believed the series will be "the deepest contribution I could ever make in film to my children and the next generation. "I can only hope a change in our thinking will result," he said in a statement.
Stone, 62, who won a Purple Heart for his own military service in Vietnam, is also working on a sequel to his 1987 movie "Wall Street" about greed and capitalism.
His last film "W" about President George W. Bush, was released in 2008 a few weeks before the last U.S. presidential elections.
No air date has yet been set for the Showtime series.
