Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

[MacGuffin]

Film's Wall Street Predator to Make a Comeback
Source: New York Times

LOS ANGELES, May 4 — Greed is still good.

Or so those at 20th Century Fox hope. Even as their boss, Rupert Murdoch, pursued an uninvited takeover bid for Dow Jones this week, Fox movie executives quietly sealed a deal to revive Gordon Gekko, the suspender-loving financial prowler who made grabbing seem good in Oliver Stone's 1987 film, "Wall Street."

When last seen, the corrupt Gekko, an Oscar-winning role for Michael Douglas, was on the brink of surrendering his white cuffs for handcuffs, having been sold out by his protégé Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen.

"He went to jail," acknowledged Edward R. Pressman, who produced the original movie and reached an agreement with Fox this week to develop a sequel in which Mr. Douglas will resume his machinations on a global scale in the hedge-fund era. Mr. Pressman declined to say more about the plot. But the title, he said, will be "Money Never Sleeps," after one of Gekko's guiding principles in the first film, written by Stanley Weiser and Mr. Stone.

"Wall Street" was only a modest hit when Fox released it. But it won a passionate following in the financial world, where many found something to love in the predatory Gekko. Speaking by telephone from Bermuda, Mr. Douglas said he wouldn't mind if he never had "one more drunken Wall Street broker come up to me and say, 'You're the man!' "

Mr. Stone will not direct the sequel, although the producer said that Messrs. Pressman and Douglas and their new writer, Stephen Schiff ("True Crime"), pressed him to do so for months. Mr. Schiff, who expects to deliver a script later this year, said the Bud Fox character was likely to be missing as well. But a restyled Gekko, he predicted, might start setting trends all over again.

"If you weren't wearing suspenders before 'Wall Street,' you were certainly wearing them after," he said. As for moral development, don't expect too much from a villain who taught us that lunch is for wimps, and who bragged: "I create nothing. I own."

"I don't think he's much different," Mr. Douglas said. "He's just had more time to think about what to do."

[Kal]

Wow... I would actually love to see that. Although Bud Fox should be in it as well.

[Gold Trumpet]

Although Bud Fox should be in it as well.

Why? By the end of the first film, he was broken down and barely leaving the world of Wall Street a free man. Logic says he went on to a different life. Forcing Gekko and Fox together years later would make no sense and just be a desperate move to pair two stars together again.

The only news for me is that Oliver Stone is not directing it. At first I liked the idea he would, but he has better projects to take on.

[Kal]

I dont think the end means that he left that world forever... I think if he was free and young he could use that valuable lesson and knowledge to do something different... Gekko on the other hand could have lost everything and went to jail... so who knows how the story will continue.

I personally think that how Bud Fox continued his life would be cool... I know a lot of people in that business that got in trouble and made mistakes but they found a way back in the game.

[Gold Trumpet]

I just doubt either character would let the other into their trust again to make a story between them even viable. They are just over, regardless of whether one left Wall Street for good or not.

[Kal]

True. But maybe Bud Fox and Gekko are rivals now. Bud could be the new Larry Wildman. Mmm maybe not :P

[RegularKarate]

Get a ROOM!

Oliver Stone is not directing it... he has better projects to take on.

He's about five minutes from Making The Doors 2.  washup

[MacGuffin]

Gekko is good for return of Wall Street's bad boy
Source: TheWest.com.au

Just like his first love, Gordon Gekko never sleeps. One of the most enduring anti-heroes of cinema's past two decades, the super rich trader from Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street is likely to return as a far less parochial figure in the sequel now being finalised.

"Wall Street was New York-centric. Today the markets are much more global, hence the title of the new film, Money Never Sleeps," says Ed Pressman, the producer of both films, as well as the likes of Reversal of Fortune, Thank You For Smoking and Conan the Barbarian.

"The new film will be based in New York, in London, in the United Arab Emirates and in an Asian country. We've pretty well worked out the inter-personal relationships between the characters. We're now talking about the business events."

Over the past few months, those talks involved Pressman and Lolita screenwriter Stephen Schiff visiting London and meeting the likes of billionaire Vincent Tchenguiz.
   
"We are talking to Vincent to see how people behave in this era," the producer adds, though Tchenguiz is not the new Gekko, again to be played by Michael Douglas.
   
"Originally, there was no one individual who Gekko was modelled on," he adds. "But Gekko was partly (Michael) Milken."
   
Last time we saw him, Gekko ruled Wall Street and made billions through insider trading. In the real world, Michael Milken, best known as the "Junk Bond King" of the 1980s, was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud in 1989 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison (he served less than two). Since then he has devoted much of his time and money to charity.
   
And Milken still seems comparable to the modern Gekko who, we will learn, has been to prison but, a free man for the past eight years, will return to our screens as a more outwardly altruistic figure though, as Pressman admits, "a leopard doesn't change its spots, despite appearances". So Gekko will be a philanthropist, then? "Now that's a good idea," he smiles, less than cryptically.
   
If the Gekko character seems settled, it is fair to say that nobody quite predicted how well he would go down last time.
   
Wall Street was really a film about Bud Fox, a young ambitious stockbroker played by Charlie Sheen (who may or may not return in the sequel) whom Gekko took under his wing. Having been corrupted by Gekko, Fox eventually betrays his mentor to arch-rival Sir Larry Wildman (played by Terence Stamp and modelled, Pressman says, on James Goldsmith) before grassing Gekko up to the authorities.
   
Even so, actual Wall Street traders saw Gekko as the hero. "That's his appeal," Pressman says. "Gekko is larger than life. His appetites are large. The audience enjoys a vicarious pleasure of seeing a world they would never be part of. In a funny way Wall Street was like The Godfather — in that the real mob began dressing and behaving like characters in the movie. After Wall Street people started wearing suspenders (braces) like Michael."
   
Douglas' Gekko is the brand in his own right — and one that is likely to sell more these days with business enjoying a wider audience than 20 years ago.
   
Schiff says: "The first film was a moderate hit at the time (it took about $US60 million at the box office and cost $US16 million), but Gekko became a household name."

[Kal]

I'm so excited about this... and it will probably suck...

[grand theft sparrow]

This will all depend on Douglas.  He's been in movie star retirement, doing easy comedies and such since after Traffic, but he's not hurting for cash (in part thanks to his wife) so if he's on board, I'm confident that he's confident that it's a good script.  But I think the difference between this being good and being Rocky V rests on the quality of his performance.

[Kal]

This will all depend on Douglas.  He's been in movie star retirement, doing easy comedies and such since after Traffic, but he's not hurting for cash (in part thanks to his wife) so if he's on board, I'm confident that he's confident that it's a good script.  But I think the difference between this being good and being Rocky V rests on the quality of his performance.

If you meant Rocky V, then I agree. If you meant Rocky VI, I dont

[MacGuffin]

Michael Douglas asked about Wall Street crisis
"And my name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago."

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Michael Douglas had to field questions Wednesday about the financial turmoil shaking world markets from reporters recalling his role in the 1987 film "Wall Street."

The actor sought to focus on the subject of Wednesday's news conference -- urging the United States and eight other holdout nations to ratify a nuclear test ban treaty.

Douglas won an Academy Award for portraying the rapacious banker Gordon Gekko, who popularized the phrase "greed is good" in the movie.

After world leaders here condemned the "boundless greed" of world markets, Douglas was asked to compare nuclear Armageddon with the "financial Armageddon on Wall Street."

But the likening to Gekko did not end there, with a reporter asking: "Are you saying Gordon that greed is not good?"

"I'm not saying that," Douglas replied. "And my name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago."

Douglas, who married actress Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2000, has won two Oscars -- as a producer for 1975's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and as best actor for his role in "Wall Street."

[MacGuffin]

Fox moves on 'Wall St.' sequel
Allan Loeb to write 'Money Never Sleeps'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

With the nation keeping an eye on the see-sawing stock market, Fox is ready to revisit if greed is indeed good by pushing anew with its "Wall Street" sequel, titled "Money Never Sleeps."

Allan Loeb has been tapped to write the script in what is being described as a page one rewrite.

The logline is being kept under wraps, though it will feature the character of Gordon Gekko, the corporate raider character immortalized by Michael Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone film.

Douglas, who won an Oscar for the role, is interested in reprising the character but will make his decision of whether to return based on the script.

Ed Pressman, who produced the original, is producing the sequel.

Loeb, repped by CAA, wrote "Things We Lost in the Fire" and "21" and created the TV show "New Amsterdam."

[MacGuffin]

Oliver Stone in for Fox's 'Wall Street' follow-up
Allan Loeb hired to rewrite long-developing project
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street's all the rage again -- literally. And Oliver Stone has decided he has more to say about it.

Stone has just closed a deal with Fox to direct the follow-up to "Wall Street," now tentatively called "Wall Street 2." This would provide an unusual amount of continuity since Stone directed and co-wrote, with Stanley Weiser, the original 1987 exploration of the inner workings of the finance sector and its complicated relationship with greed.

Allan Loeb ("21," "The Baster") was hired to rewrite the long-developing project in the fall and has apparently turned in a script strong enough to corral Stone, who reportedly was very cool to the idea of a sequel. Ed Pressman, who produced the original film, is producing the follow-up, as well.

The CAA-repped Stone most recently directed the biopic "W.," and before that helmed the Sept. 11 disaster drama "World Trade Center," which itself was a kind of tragic bookend to "Wall Street's" greed-is-good mantra. The new "Wall Street" project, with its up-to-the-minute placement in the context of the current global financial mess, should provide Stone with an ample palette for his typically provocative cultural commentary.

The plot line for the new "Wall Street" iteration has not been divulged, but it will pick up with corporate raider Gordon Gekko, the character for which Michael Douglas won a best actor Oscar more than 20 years ago. Gekko's larger-than-life presence will once again loom over a younger upstart looking to navigate the shark-tank world of today's Wall Street.

Douglas has been interested for some time and has read the latest script. His involvement in the sequel is very likely, if not yet signed and sealed.

The Endeavor-repped actor last starred in the 2007 comedy, "King of California." Douglas co-stars in "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," which opens Friday.

----------------------------------------------------------

Stone to walk 'Wall Street' again
Shia LaBeouf in talks for Fox sequel
Source: Variety

Greed is good, once again.

After weeks of rumors, 20th Century Fox has set Oliver Stone to return as helmer of the sequel to his 1987 hit "Wall Street." Shia LaBeouf is also in the mix for "Wall Street 2."

LaBeouf is negotiating to join Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko in the original pic. The sequel will once again involve a young Wall Street trader, and the recent economic meltdown spurred by rampant greed and corruption will fit prominently into the plot.

Allan Loeb write the script. Edward R. Pressman is back as producer.

[Gold Trumpet]

I don't mind it. Stone is able to make this film at a point of relevancy in our society. It won't be just a chance to make money or sell out (well, I hope not). If Stone is able to infuse cultural commentary, all the better. The part that worries me is LaBeouf's role sounds insanely like Sheen's original one so I hope the plot isn't just trying to repeat itself.