‘I would create a VR brothel’: Oliver Stone on Putin, nuclear war and virtual reality

‘In virtual reality, you create the world. It’s like a seance. I would set up a brothel, and I would try to make it as exciting as possible,’ says director Oliver Stone.

Oscar-winner Stone wrote and directed hit films such as ‘Platoon’ and ‘Wall Street’ – and in recent years has focused on hard-hitting political documentaries, such as ‘Snowden’ and ‘The Putin Interviews‘.

Stone spoke to journalists after delivering a speech at Trondheim’s Starmus science festival.

He says, ‘Virtual reality is like theatre more than films in some way. You create a mood, you make the setting, there’s no framing, there’s no cutting. But I don’t know that it’s directing, in any terms that I recognise. It’s more like being a circus manager. You have to put the elephants in a row.’

Speaking to a roundtable of journalists at the Starmus festival, Stone dealt with a series of questions about Vladimir Putin, cyber war and Donald Trump.

Stone, who spent years interviewing Vladimir Putin for his latest project, says that he feels that the investigation of Donald Trump is based on ‘no proof’.

He says, ‘Our congressmen accuse Russia on such thin evidence, basically it’s an assessment based on three agency. It’s a farce that it’s presented as evidence. The country’s been absorbed by a McCarthy-like hysteria – with no proof.’

Stone says that he fears that tensions between Russia and America could lead to global nuclear war – and that cyber war could provide the spark which sets it off.

‘Cyber warfare is a very dangerous game. It can turn into hot warfare,’ Stone says, ‘With the Snowden movie, I went into this whole field, which I never knew much about. America was deploying malware in allies infrastructure, a very dangerous game.

‘Why? In case some time in the future, that ally, Brazil or Japan, became an enemy – then the United States could shut it down. That’s pretty heavy. That’s secret warfare We’re wandering in a void right now. There’s no cyber treaty. We need some kind of authority, a referee like the UN.’

Many questions focused on Vladimir Putin – who Stone met on multiple occasions, at one point showing the Russian leader scenes from the nuclear war drama ‘Dr Strangelove’.

Stone says, ‘It’s crazy to have him [Putin] as an enemy. We talk about national security. But we are endangering our own. We could be partners. I really feel we are really much the same.’

‘Our situation has got even worse that a missile can hit New York – or 14 minutes. The accidents scare me. They should scare all of us. A commander somewhere, like in Dr Strangelove, who goes a little bit excited and does something, it could be the end of us. We’ve had so many near-misses. We wake up every morning – you should think, ‘We have another day’. We need for both sides to talk – not just about nuclear.’

Stone batted off criticism of his ‘friendly’ approach to interviewing Putin – claiming that the confrontational approach of Western interviewers achieved nothing.

Stone says, ‘You have to get past this distrust. The Western media stars are trying to get a name for themselves. They want to make a name for themselves, so they think, ‘He’s a tough guy – I’ve got to be tough.’ So you get into this rigid dialogue where there’s nothing being said. He’s getting his back up. You’re getting your back up. ‘

‘The news is often soft. It’s a nuance, it’s grey matter. America sends reporters, and they have eight minutes, so you end up with, ‘Do you beat your wife? Or ‘How many people have you killed?’ These are questions that do not do any good. Go the other way.’

Watch a trailer for Oliver Stone’s most recent movie ‘Snowden’ below…

Read more
Fincher confirmed for World War Z 2
Jonah Hill’s incredible weight loss
Wonder Woman’s measly wages

Starmus festival, hosted by NTNU, Norway, Trondheim, www.starmus.com. Starmus is the world’s most ambitious science and arts festival with Professor Stephen Hawking as keynote speaker, 11 Nobel laureates and Buzz Aldrin, Oliver Stone, Brian Cox and Neil deGrasse Tyson.