Saturday 3 April 2010
Why Fox Moving the release date...
The fact that Fox announced this decision after Oliver Stone started showing the film to Fox execs is enough to set off alarm bells. But insiders said that Fox and Oliver Stone really are gambling that the Cannes Film Festival will approve a gala release that would give Stone an opportunity to launch the film a worldwide platform.Still, why do a publicity lap with Stone, Michael Douglas, Shia La Beouf, Carey Mulligan and Josh Brolin, only to wait for months to release Wall Street 2?I'm told there is no wiggle room in a summer schedule that is complicated by the World Cup. While that soccer tournament doesn't mean so much in the U.S., normal life stops around the world when soccer fever takes hold. They don't go to the movies, and distributors looking for global day and date launches are loading films before and after the tournament. The last weekend in September is a prime spot for Stone's film. And if he needs to trim his running time a little bit, as I've heard, he won't be rushed. ( source: Deadline)
Friday 19 February 2010
Gekko's Timing
It has been 22 years since we first met Gordon Gekko, the archetypal Wall Street brute played by Michael Douglas.
Many scandals, three recessions and one near-collapse of the entire banking system later, he is yet to be replaced as the embodiment of capitalism with the gloves off.
The one-liners from the film can still be heard wherever men and markets do battle: “Greed is good”; “Lunch is for wimps”; “Money never sleeps”; “What's worth doing is worth doing for money”; “If you need a friend, get a dog”; “Churn 'em and burn 'em”.
Oliver Stone, who wrote and directed the movie Wall Street, rebuffed requests for a sequel for years. His original was not only a cinematic triumph, but it was also perfectly timed, coming out in 1987 at the end of an extraordinary, excessive run in the financial markets, which culminated in a spectacular crash, Black Monday.
There was no way, Stone reckoned, he could repeat his success. He also believed that America would never tolerate a similar era of excess. During the boom years, he was fearful of making another film about the financial industry as he “didn't want to glorify pigs”. The events of the past 18 months put him back to work, interviewing money managers, journalists and corporate crooks, piecing together the story for Wall Street 2. Filming began last week in New York.
In an interview with The New York Times, Stone said he had written Gekko as a monster, only for him to become a heroic figure in pop culture. “I can't tell you how many young people have come up to me in these years and said, I went to Wall Street because of that movie'.”
Michael Douglas said he had the same experience and that it had “probably been the biggest surprise of my career that people say that this seductive villain has motivated me to go into this business.” He added that it is quite usual, when he goes out to dinner, to have a “well-lubricated Wall Street businessman come up to me and say, You're the man'”.
Like Stone, Douglas was equally reluctant to make a sequel. It was the financial crisis and the behaviour it exposed which changed his mind. All the foot-dragging which had gone on for years turned into a sprint to make a film as evocative of the recent financial era as Wall Street was of the 1980s.
Gekko's Greed is Good speech is still shown to MBA students at business schools. It is intended as a morality lesson, but ends up feeling more like a pep talk. At my old business school, Harvard, Gekko's speech electrified a snoozy morning class on leadership. By the time Gekko was done berating the board of Teldar Paper, the entire class was grinning and alert. “I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!” boomed Gekko.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, [for] knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.”
For most MBA students that speech is less a parody than a guiding philosophy. Over the past year, as Wall Street froze hiring and many MBA students struggled to find work, a wave of ethical re-evaluation swept business school campuses. A group of Harvard Business School students even came up with an MBA oath, vowing to be responsible, law-abiding, civic-minded business people.
It was not the kind of thing anyone bothered with when the economy was roaring along and students could still fantasise about gliding from business school into a world of Gekko-ish riches.
Stone based the “greed is good” speech on one given by Ivan Boesky, a high-living speculator whose prosecution for insider trading marked the climax of Wall Street's trading boom of the 1980s. Boesky operated from a marble-walled office on Fifth Avenue and by 1986 had built a fortune of $200 million trading the shares of companies involved in corporate takeovers.
Prosecutors then went after him and he was sent to jail for two years and fined $100 million. In 1985, Boesky told students at the University of California, Berkeley, that: “Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”
In Wall Street 2, Gordon Gekko has emerged from prison, where he spent time for the securities fraud described in Wall Street. He now helps a younger man, played by Shia LaBeouf, who is planning to marry Gekko's daughter.
The villains of the piece are not the independent traders like Gekko, who were subsequently replaced by hedge fund managers. It is the big, clumsy, malicious investment banks who rigged the financial system in their favour.
The Gekko-ish behaviour described in Wall Street has become adopted by the Establishment, with all the wickedness and selfishness but none of the style possessed by Gekko. And even worse, it has been dressed up as acceptable behaviour, courtesy of lobbyists and craven politicians who allowed the banks to run riot.
Academics who have studied Wall Street, the movie, say that it left such a deep impression on the popular imagination that Wall Street, the financial industry, has battled it ever since. When politicians see bankers coming to Capitol Hill or to a Commons Select Committee, in their minds they see Gordon Gekko.
When the public sees yet another financial scandal erupt, or Goldman Sachs bankers feasting on taxpayer bailouts then handing out bonuses, the soundtrack in their mind is Gekko lecturing that “greed is good”. This has had a powerful effect on the way the financial industry is regulated.
Sequels don't have a great reputation, but if Stone and Douglas can pull this one off, if they can crystallise the horrors which unfolded at the summit of Wall Street these past few years, they will do us all a great service.
Many scandals, three recessions and one near-collapse of the entire banking system later, he is yet to be replaced as the embodiment of capitalism with the gloves off.
The one-liners from the film can still be heard wherever men and markets do battle: “Greed is good”; “Lunch is for wimps”; “Money never sleeps”; “What's worth doing is worth doing for money”; “If you need a friend, get a dog”; “Churn 'em and burn 'em”.
Oliver Stone, who wrote and directed the movie Wall Street, rebuffed requests for a sequel for years. His original was not only a cinematic triumph, but it was also perfectly timed, coming out in 1987 at the end of an extraordinary, excessive run in the financial markets, which culminated in a spectacular crash, Black Monday.
There was no way, Stone reckoned, he could repeat his success. He also believed that America would never tolerate a similar era of excess. During the boom years, he was fearful of making another film about the financial industry as he “didn't want to glorify pigs”. The events of the past 18 months put him back to work, interviewing money managers, journalists and corporate crooks, piecing together the story for Wall Street 2. Filming began last week in New York.
In an interview with The New York Times, Stone said he had written Gekko as a monster, only for him to become a heroic figure in pop culture. “I can't tell you how many young people have come up to me in these years and said, I went to Wall Street because of that movie'.”
Michael Douglas said he had the same experience and that it had “probably been the biggest surprise of my career that people say that this seductive villain has motivated me to go into this business.” He added that it is quite usual, when he goes out to dinner, to have a “well-lubricated Wall Street businessman come up to me and say, You're the man'”.
Like Stone, Douglas was equally reluctant to make a sequel. It was the financial crisis and the behaviour it exposed which changed his mind. All the foot-dragging which had gone on for years turned into a sprint to make a film as evocative of the recent financial era as Wall Street was of the 1980s.
Gekko's Greed is Good speech is still shown to MBA students at business schools. It is intended as a morality lesson, but ends up feeling more like a pep talk. At my old business school, Harvard, Gekko's speech electrified a snoozy morning class on leadership. By the time Gekko was done berating the board of Teldar Paper, the entire class was grinning and alert. “I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!” boomed Gekko.
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, [for] knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.”
For most MBA students that speech is less a parody than a guiding philosophy. Over the past year, as Wall Street froze hiring and many MBA students struggled to find work, a wave of ethical re-evaluation swept business school campuses. A group of Harvard Business School students even came up with an MBA oath, vowing to be responsible, law-abiding, civic-minded business people.
It was not the kind of thing anyone bothered with when the economy was roaring along and students could still fantasise about gliding from business school into a world of Gekko-ish riches.
Stone based the “greed is good” speech on one given by Ivan Boesky, a high-living speculator whose prosecution for insider trading marked the climax of Wall Street's trading boom of the 1980s. Boesky operated from a marble-walled office on Fifth Avenue and by 1986 had built a fortune of $200 million trading the shares of companies involved in corporate takeovers.
Prosecutors then went after him and he was sent to jail for two years and fined $100 million. In 1985, Boesky told students at the University of California, Berkeley, that: “Greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”
In Wall Street 2, Gordon Gekko has emerged from prison, where he spent time for the securities fraud described in Wall Street. He now helps a younger man, played by Shia LaBeouf, who is planning to marry Gekko's daughter.
The villains of the piece are not the independent traders like Gekko, who were subsequently replaced by hedge fund managers. It is the big, clumsy, malicious investment banks who rigged the financial system in their favour.
The Gekko-ish behaviour described in Wall Street has become adopted by the Establishment, with all the wickedness and selfishness but none of the style possessed by Gekko. And even worse, it has been dressed up as acceptable behaviour, courtesy of lobbyists and craven politicians who allowed the banks to run riot.
Academics who have studied Wall Street, the movie, say that it left such a deep impression on the popular imagination that Wall Street, the financial industry, has battled it ever since. When politicians see bankers coming to Capitol Hill or to a Commons Select Committee, in their minds they see Gordon Gekko.
When the public sees yet another financial scandal erupt, or Goldman Sachs bankers feasting on taxpayer bailouts then handing out bonuses, the soundtrack in their mind is Gekko lecturing that “greed is good”. This has had a powerful effect on the way the financial industry is regulated.
Sequels don't have a great reputation, but if Stone and Douglas can pull this one off, if they can crystallise the horrors which unfolded at the summit of Wall Street these past few years, they will do us all a great service.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Oliver Stone- ' I never had any plans to make a wall street sequel'
The original movie was released back in 1987, & was an instant hit, but Stone had no intention of taking the project further until he was given a script.
In an interview with Empire Oliver Stone said: "I had really not wanted to do a sequel. But then the crash happened, and the producer of the original movie came to me with a screenplay that I liked, which really addresses the issue of the crash. It started with Gordon Gekko getting out of jail and it hooked me.
"And it has this three-generation structure which I really liked. Gordon is in his sixties, Josh Brolin’s is in his forties and we have Shia’s character in his twenties.
"Carey Mulligan plays Shia’s fiancee and Gordon’s daughter. So she’s really the hook. The question is, I suppose, how does Gordon get back into the game? He’s an ex-con so it’s very hard. How he does it is very tricky and very surprising."
Lets Hope the sequel lives up to the original, There are a lot of Hard-Core fans out there!
What are your thoughts?????
null
In an interview with Empire Oliver Stone said: "I had really not wanted to do a sequel. But then the crash happened, and the producer of the original movie came to me with a screenplay that I liked, which really addresses the issue of the crash. It started with Gordon Gekko getting out of jail and it hooked me.
"And it has this three-generation structure which I really liked. Gordon is in his sixties, Josh Brolin’s is in his forties and we have Shia’s character in his twenties.
"Carey Mulligan plays Shia’s fiancee and Gordon’s daughter. So she’s really the hook. The question is, I suppose, how does Gordon get back into the game? He’s an ex-con so it’s very hard. How he does it is very tricky and very surprising."
Lets Hope the sequel lives up to the original, There are a lot of Hard-Core fans out there!
What are your thoughts?????
null
Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps Film Plot
Wall Street [Blu-ray]
Set in New York City, & featuring such locations as London & Dubai the film takes place 20 years after the original, and is set around the 2008 stock market crash. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) has just been released from his prison after serving 20 years for Insider trading.
Despite initial attempts of Gekko trying to warn Wall Street of the soon-to-be economy down-fall and stock market crash no one believes him due to his now defaced image in the financial world. Gekko then decides to re-focus his attention to rebuilding a relationship with his now-estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Due to his time in prison, and the fact that Gekko is blamed for his son Rudy's suicide. Winnie avoids any contact with him. During this same period in time, young Wall Street trader Jacob's (Shia LaBeouf) mentor (Frank Langella) unexpectedly dies, and Jacob suspects his hedge fund manager (Josh Brolin) of being involved in his mentor's death. Jacob, who is Winnie's fiancé, wants to seek revenge, and agrees to team up with Gekko for help; in return Jacob agrees to help Gekko repair his relationship with Winnie.
The film is scheduled for an April 23 2010 release in the UK.
Set in New York City, & featuring such locations as London & Dubai the film takes place 20 years after the original, and is set around the 2008 stock market crash. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) has just been released from his prison after serving 20 years for Insider trading.Despite initial attempts of Gekko trying to warn Wall Street of the soon-to-be economy down-fall and stock market crash no one believes him due to his now defaced image in the financial world. Gekko then decides to re-focus his attention to rebuilding a relationship with his now-estranged daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Due to his time in prison, and the fact that Gekko is blamed for his son Rudy's suicide. Winnie avoids any contact with him. During this same period in time, young Wall Street trader Jacob's (Shia LaBeouf) mentor (Frank Langella) unexpectedly dies, and Jacob suspects his hedge fund manager (Josh Brolin) of being involved in his mentor's death. Jacob, who is Winnie's fiancé, wants to seek revenge, and agrees to team up with Gekko for help; in return Jacob agrees to help Gekko repair his relationship with Winnie.
The film is scheduled for an April 23 2010 release in the UK.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
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