Gekko
Posted on 05/04/2007 11:10:54 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The original film was a cartoonish melodrama. It can certainly be improved upon.
Gekko
George Soros?
Gekko is Jewish for lizard,right?
Google Gordon Gekko Geico Puma Tina
The original movie came out in December 1987 just two months after the crash. I don’t think they’ll be as close this time.
Gekko wasn’t supposed to be an admirable figure, and it irritated the hell out of Douglas when people identified with Gekko. For Mike to play Gekko again just for the money tells me that Mike has finally come around. If he’s willing to sell out his anticapitalist principles for lucre, then he’s acknowledging that there’s a component of goodness in greed, after all.
Did you notice that the beginning of the movie said it was set in 1985, then a few minutes later, Gekko was reputed to have dealt in NASA stock (is there such a thing??) minutes after the Challenger exploded -— which was in January of 1986?
Say what you will about the movie, but I’ve got it on DVD and I’d go see a sequel as soon as it comes out, and I NEVER go to the movies. I may even watch the original today!
I caught just the ending on Showtime the other night and wished I’d known it was on. Like you, I’ve seen it several times, would watch it again, and certainly would enjoy a sequel, if only to see how horribly they portray Gordon to make damned sure no one roots for him, unlike the last time.
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