American filmmaker Oliver Stone says he's hopeful that Barack Obama's administration represents a departure from George W Bush's, but cautioned that the new US president is "trapped" by a political system that favours military action over diplomacy.
The director, who was often critical of Bush during his presidency, was in Hong Kong to promote W, his biopic of the former president.
Many have said, however, that the film is relatively tame by Stone's standards.
"I'm hoping for the best. (Obama's) a reform candidate. He thinks. He analyses," the 62-year-old director told reporters in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
But Stone added that Obama was "trapped in a system which was driven toward militarism and greed on Wall Street".
Stone encouraged Obama to rethink his position on Hugo Chavez, whom the president called a "destructive force" in South America before he took office.
Stone is making a documentary about the Venezuelan president, whom he has praised as a "world-changer," and his left-leaning allies in the region.
Stone said he had a hard time raising funds for W because its subject was a sitting president, with most of the money coming from Hong Kong, but that the film will break even.
The $US25 million ($A35.47 million) movie has made $US29.4 million ($A41.72 million) worldwide, according to the box office tracking website Box Office Mojo.
He said he was exploring a possible sequel to his 1987 movie Wall Street and working on another documentary about American history.
Stone's films also include the Vietnam films Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon, which won four Oscars including best picture and director.
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