Director Oliver Stone, who has made movies about US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, is developing a project about the current occupant of the White House, but promises it will not be a hatchet job, Daily Variety reported on Sunday.
According to Reuters, Stone is in talks with Josh Brolin, who is starring in ’No Country For Old Men,’ to play the title role in ’Bush’, the trade paper said.
He is shopping the script to financiers and hopes to start production by April, with a release date in time for the election in November, or the inauguration of Bush’s successor in January.
Stone told Daily Variety that he planned to make ’a fair, true portrait’ of Bush, focusing on such areas as his relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, his wild youth, and his conversion to Christianity.
“It will contain surprises for Bush supporters and his detractors,“ said Stone.
A White House spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. Bush has acknowledged that he was a heavy drinker in his younger days, but has long been sober.
Stone earned three Oscar nominations for his 1991 conspiracy film ’JFK.’ In 1996, he also received a script nomination for ’Nixon,’ which starred Anthony Hopkins. He won best directing Oscars for the Vietnam sagas ’Platoon’ and ’Born on the Fourth of July.’
Other historical figures reinterpreted by Stone include dead rock star Jim Morrison in ’The Doors,’ and Alexander the Great in ’Alexander.’
In 2002, he shot a flattering documentary about Cuban leader Fidel Castro for HBO, but the pay-cable network told him to balance it with more footage about political prisoners on the communist island.

Morteza Momayyez

Noted Italian graphic designer Armando Milani plans to organize exhibitions and workshops to mark the second death anniversary of Morteza Momayyez, the father of Iranian graphic designing.
According to ISNA, Milani has been invited by Momayyez’ family to attend a ceremony to commemorate the late artist. Ceremonies to mark Momayyez’s second death anniversary will be held after a two-month delay.
The exhibition, which will be held under the title ’From Eye to Heart’ from January 26-31, includes 40 logos and posters by Milani.
The Italian artist, who was a friend of Momayyez, will also deliver a lecture in Artists’ House on the same day. Milani will organize a practical workshop themed ’Water Pollution’ on January 28.
However, since no gallery was available to host Milani’s exhibit in view of the tight schedule of Artists House, he postponed his visit to Tehran to two months later.
An international exhibition featuring 41 posters by the same number of artists of global stature was also part of the programs to mark the event.
Born in 1936 in Tehran, Momayyez graduated in painting from Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1965. He later attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris to study interior architecture and design. After returning home, Momayyez started his activities in graphics and illustration.
He was the chairman of Iranian Graphic Designers Society from 1988 to 2004 and was honored by the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) with a lifetime achievement award in April 2004.
Momayyez died of prostate cancer on November 26, 2005 in Tehran.

Tickets for the 26th Fajr International Film Festival will be sold in Palestine Cinema from January 25 to 29.
According to MNA, artists and representatives of media can buy tickets on January 25 from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. while tickets for students will be available on January 26-27 at a 20-percent discount.
Representatives of ministries, organizations and institutes can buy tickets on January 28-29 upon presentation of letters of introduction.
Meanwhile, Leon Vitali, producer of the film ’Small Children’ and assistant of the American film director Stanley Kubrick will attend this year’s Fajr Festival.
Vitali was born in England in 1948. He has produced valuable works in the fields of theater, TV and cinema.
The films ’Alexandria’ by Alexander Sokhorov and ’Aljan’ by Folker Shlandorov will be screened in the international section of the event.
’Alexandria’ is an anti-war film which tries to narrate human issues in the context of violence.
’Aljan’ is based on the story of a man who travels from France to the East in search of spirituality.

Association of Distinguished Works of Fiction named ’Vav’ has nominated six novels for Vav award.
Secretary of the association, Faezeh Shakeri told ISNA that top works will be selected in a ceremony to be held on February 14 at Tehran’s Artists’ House.
The books include ’Southern Grief’ written by Mohammad Ayyoubi, ’Translator’ by Hamid Reza Shahabadi, ’Yearly’ by Asghar Elahi, ’A Scorpion on Andimeshk Railroad’ by Hossein Mortezaeian-Abkenar, ’Angels Smell of Orange’ by Hassan Bani-Ameri and ’M’ by Alimorad Fadaei-Nia.
The books were selected out of 34 novels printed in 2006.

Trunk of a tree dating back to five million years ago is maintained in Sanjesh Museum in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan, IRNA reported.
The museum is one of the richest in the city and houses many valuable items.
The tree belongs to the Pliocene era, a period from Cenozoic Era, the last geological era.
An official of the museum said that the trunk was bought a year ago from a local geologist in Parsabad and transferred to the museum. The tree has petrified in the process of time. Its vessels and the outer layer have solidified by absorbing organic material.
The museum, based in a two-storey building named Salmasi House with a built-up area of 875 square meters, is home to the first measurement tools for time, weight, electricity, water and gas used in Iran.
Many kinds of balances, steelyards and weights are maintained there.
The 160-year-old Salmasi House dates back to the Qajar era (1796-1925).
Astrological and meteorological instruments as well as compasses are on display in the museum.

Nader Mashayekhi

Noted Iranian musician and conductor of Tehran Symphony Orchestra Nader Mashayekhi has called for reviving classical music in the country by completely overhauling this branch of music.
Commenting on the latest developments of the orchestra and classical music, he further told MNA that the orchestra lacks a full-time conductor and any changes in the field should begin with the orchestra itself since it symbolizes classical music in the country.
“Unfortunately, low quality works are presented in the name of classical works whereas most of these works were performed in Europe 200 years ago,“ he said.
Mashayekhi further said that talented young artists should be provided an opportunity to assert themselves in the field.
The greatest dilemma facing the music is mismanagement in the cultural sector, he complained.
Beauty of art, notably music, lies in diversity, he observed, adding that new trends in music should be supported since the people are unfamiliar with them. For example, most do know about Chamber Orchestra, he said, complaining that musicians also have done nothing to introduce this type of orchestra.
Turning to the state of training the youth in the field of classical music, he said that the education system in universities discourages the students.

The First Farabi International Festival will be held on January 26 in Tehran’s OIC Summit building.
Announcing this, Mohammad Baqer Khorramshad, deputy minister of Science, Research and Technology, told IRNA that the festival, which takes its name from the renowned Muslim polymath Abu Nasr Farabi, will focus on humanities and Islamic sciences.
He added that out of 1,023 papers submitted to the festival’s secretariat, 17 works have been selected.
The works were chosen from nine branches of human sciences, including literature, history, law, communications, jurisprudence, art and aesthetics.
Referring to the festival’s foreign section, he said, “Twelve papers on Iranology have been submitted to the festival’s secretariat from France, India, England, Japan and the USA,“ adding that five works will be selected in this section.
Khorramshad hoped that festivals of this kind will help promote humanities in the country and said, “Humanities is the cornerstone of every civilization.“
The official noted that the late Islamic historian, Seyyed Jafar Shahidi will be posthumously awarded the first prize of Persian Literature at the event. Dean of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Kazakhstan will be also honored at the event.
Turning to the festival’s awards, he said that a golden pen and a plaque of honor will be presented as the top prize in each group. Three plaques of honor will be presented for top works. These include the presidential plaque as well as two plaques to be presented in cooperation with the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Cash prizes of 80, 60 and 40 million rials will be presented to the winners of the first, second and third prizes, respectively.

A group exhibition featuring paintings by four professional artists is underway at Nar Gallery and will run until January 30.
According to ISNA, works by Fatemeh Emdadian, Seyyed Mehdi Hosseini, Farideh Lashaei and Nosratollah Moslemian, are on display at the event.
The exhibition is open to the public everyday from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
Nar Gallery is located in 50, Rolex Mall, between Za’feranieh and Mahmoudieh streets, Vali-e Asr Avenue, Tehran.