"Wall Street" Sequel: Michael Douglas, Oliver Stone On Board

LOS ANGELES — Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone are back together again with a sequel to their 1987 hit "Wall Street."

Douglas is reprising his role as Gordon Gekko and Stone is on board again to direct the sequel, which for now has the working title "Wall Street 2," said 20th Century Fox spokesman Gregg Brilliant.

Brilliant said the project is timely and relevant given the state of the world.

"We need to keep the story line under wraps, but it's literally ripped from today's headlines," Brilliant said. "It's going to be very big and very cool."

With the economy and financial markets in a tailspin, it will be different times for Douglas' Gekko. In the original film, corporate raider Gekko was a symbol of Wall Street greed and corruption during the boom era of the 1980s.

Gekko has endured because audiences give him the "same kind of respect we've got for the great white shark," Douglas said in an interview Friday with Associated Press Television News for his upcoming life-achievement award from the American Film Institute.

"He's a villain. Gordon Gekko is a great, old-fashioned villain," Douglas said. "And, interestingly enough, if you look at most actors' careers, their biggest achievement, not necessarily success, but (achievement), is playing a bad guy."

Academy Awards voters agreed. Douglas earned the best-actor Oscar for Gekko.

The sequel is scheduled to start shooting this summer. Edward Pressman, who produced "Wall Street," also is back for the sequel, while Allan Loeb ("21") wrote the screenplay.

Comments

[SantaFeStars]

This should be a winner!

[LaFilleEnRose]

And don't forget Charlie Sheen!

[schicklett3]

WOW! this will be an excellent movie if its based on the events going on right now.

[MissingAmerica]

"Wall Street" is one of my all-time favorite movies! I will definitely be seeing the sequel. At last, a movie to look forward to!

[STATESMAN1]

We've already been screwed by the big business types but there are still a lot of small business owners who run their companies for life and look after their employees as best as they can.

What I'm finding amazing is it now seems that all business owners are being classified as greedy for making money.

Douglas and Stone will make more money off of this movie than most small business owners will make in a lifetime.

Maybe it's time for all the movie stars, news anchors, and athletes to make less than $250K annually.

[BlackJAC]

Salary levels tend to be inversely variable to job security. Athletes are unemployable after the age of 40, and movie stars and news anchors could fall out of favor tomorrow for any reason.

[STATESMAN1]

Tough luck. They can flip burgers like the rest of us. Employees can be laid off any day and go without a job for months or even years.

[TheApeMan]

Oh no! After years of making millions of dollars, they are unemployable!
Considering most will make 100x what the average american makes in a lifetime, I have no sympathy.

[harriettubman]

Where have you been? Athletes end up as sports announcers or with their own businesses. I don't know too many in the unemployment line. Their pensions are pretty big too. Making millions, they need to put half of that money away.

[Montanagramma]

Unemployable?? Get a new profession like everyone else. A friend of mine owned a one hour photo place. Digital cameras came on the scene, and her business failed. My husband is a printer. Home computers now produce many jobs that he used to do. Many years ago, I was a cord-board phone operator. Computers took that over in the 80's. I found a new profession. And many other people are being retrained as we speak.
Don't give me the rationalization that sports figures or actors need big money quick, so they can have a life of ease from then on. They too can "retrain".

[shyamg22]

don't watch movies, the news, or pro sports then. if enough people stopped watching these things, then the 'performers' would have their salaries driven down. atheletes, actors, news anchors get this kind of money because their owners feel they make more off them then what they spend on them.

[BlackJAC]

And risk having to interact with our families? Are you mad!? :)

[Russycle]

Other than right-wing hacks, I don't know anyone who confuses small business owners with overpaid corporate executives.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Too many corporate suits misunderstood Gekko's speech

He didn't mean "be greedy and it's every man for himself"

He meant that greed acts like a scalpel to cut the inefficiencies, specifically at the top level with companies having 29 "vice presidents" and "junior executives" and other drains on resources who contribute nothing to the company and have no love or interest towards the business itself.

[BlackJAC]

Similar misinterpretation happened with Sammy Glick in WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? It was supposed to be a character study of the dark impulses that drive the pursuit of the American Dream, but some people saw Sammy as a role model. And it was written before Ayn Rand published her freakout.

[rowzeer]

Wow you are projected qualities on Gekko that don't make sense. Greed is good because it motivates you to do what is necessary to make money and when he said make money he wasn't talking about a company he was talking about himself. He could have cared less about the companies.

[Samalabear]

In hindsight I think ABC should have kept "Dirty Sexy Money" and written in the current financial climate. Shortsighted.

"Wall Street 2" -- what an original title. Really, there used to be a time when Hollywood actually came up with names for sequels.

[BlackJAC]

DIRTY SEXY MONEY was a satirical take on soap operas and their cliche of extreme wealth improving and simplfying things, so it really doesn't apply. And WALL STREET 2 may simply be a placeholder working title.

[sarahwaters]

If it is done right it could start with immediately following 9/11 and do it in stages. If done accurately, it could be better than the first Wall Street.

[protagonia]

Indeed.

[sarahwaters]

He looks as old as his father Kirk Douglas. Has he let his age take over and not even get his hair dyed. Poor Catherine. He looks like he is at least 80 years old.

[harriettubman]

He was *s*e*x*y back in the day. I loved him in Fatal Attraction too. However, his hard living life seems to have caught up with him.

[stav506]

You try raising a toddler at his age and see how good you look?

[ChillUpMyLeg]

The writers should assume Gekko has served a prison sentence for insider trading and was banished from the equity markets for life. Then, as a means to sneak back into the financial world, he opens up a quiet hedge fund in Greenwich Connecticut to focus on foreign currency trading. Only catch is that Gekko finds a way to make sure bets by bribing a few key analysts in the Federal Reserve who know in advance which way U.S. interest rates are going to move. They slip Gekko's minions critical information under the razor wire and he uses it to make trades on Euro, Yen, Dollars, whatever. You could tie in a lot of geopolitics and debt extension (World Bank / IMF) into the mix and weave one hell of a story around Gekko's character. 20 years ago, the average moviegoer didn't really get the power of the Federal Reserve - now everybody does. Audiences are becoming much more sophistica­ted...this would satiate that need.

20th Century Fox - contact me if you want me to serve in a focus group or could use some extra ideas. I don't need to be paid but an invite to the wrap party would be nice. Thx.

[Weathermaker]

It's not like the real Wall Street doesn't provide enough material for a new movie EVERY DAY. Heck, you can have a new TV series... just replace CSI:Miami with AIG:New York.

[PhilipTaylor]

The Executives and Employees have taken so much of the Profits from their banks the Banks are Bankrupt!

These people who in 1980 made 20 times the average worker NOW MAKE 400 Times the Avg Worker!

Remember $10 to $100 Million Christmas Bonuses on top of $10 to $50 Million salaries!

They ruined their OWN Banks and want to continue while WE the taxpayers Bail their Banks OUT!

THEY RUINED THEIR OWN BANKS!

[realpolitic]

The sequel of Wall Street should begin in a way that would resemble real life. Gordan Gekko would get out of prison after serving one year with all his riches intack and Charlie Sheen would be drunk and down and out somewhere after working with the government to catch Gekko. The guys at the top always land on their feet.

[Cunningham]

I hope the sequel is as good as the original. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Michael is looking more like his father as time goes by.

[jick]

I knew there was a way to make money off the financial crisis.