When next week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly hits newsstands Monday, readers may be forgiven for thinking they’re looking at a newsmagazine: Actor Josh Brolin and actress Elizabeth Banks appear on the cover as George W. Bush and Laura Bush, the roles they’ll play in Oliver Stone’s upcoming “W,” a biopic of the 43rd president. The magazine’s cover story, written by Benjamin Svetkey, explores the genesis of the film, which is scheduled to begin shooting in two weeks.

When an early version of the movie’s script, which Mr. Stone co-wrote with Stanley Weiser (“Wall Street”), was leaked several weeks ago, many readers criticized it for its shallow portrayal of the president and his politics. But in conversations with Entertainment Weekly, Mr. Stone defends the film as a subtle character portrait, not a political attack. “If Fitzgerald were alive today, he might be writing about” the president, Mr. Stone said. “He’s sort of a reverse Gatsby.”

Mr. Stone only turned to “W” when a more ambitious project — a feature set to star Bruce Willis — fell through last December, and he remains modest about the new biopic. “Some movies are symphonies,” he told the magazine. “This one is a concerto.”