In Contention

Tag: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

  • My most anticipated films of 2010

    InceptionAnnually I put together a hasty list of my most anticipated films of the New Year on January 1.  I got rid of the pomp and circumstance around the perennial post a while back and just stuck with the list.  But a couple of things…

    I’m not sure if Kevin Macdonald’s “The Eagle of the Ninth” will make it to theaters in 2010, but that would definitely be a consideration.  And it’s difficult not to be interested in product from major filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Peter Weir and James L. Brooks, but, alas, they didn’t speak up for me when putting this together.

    Typically, the blockbusters will show up in numbers on something like this, because for me, that’s what I tend to anticipate.  When art seems to be skillfully married to commerce (like my #1 selection — which is most people’s #1 selection), all the better.  But it’s tough to really know what the art house product could have in store until we’re in the thick of the year.

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  • Gordon Gekko 2009

    Michael Douglas on the set of Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps

    (Courtesy: Daily Mail)

  • TORONTO: Douglas tops in the tedious ‘Solitary Man’

    Michael Douglas in Solitary ManPeople tend to forget that Michael Douglas won his first Academy Award not as an actor but as a producer, bringing the classic film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to the screen in 1975.

    His father Kirk had given him the project after years of trying to get the things going and Michael went outside the industry to find the money to make the picture, approaching music giant Saul Zaentz. The rest, as they say, is history, and Douglas became a major player in the business who has no doubt gone toe-to-toe with many a studio executive to get what he wants for his films.

    I wonder, however, even with an acting Oscar eventually to his credit (for Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street”), has Douglas ever been given his proper due as an actor?

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  • 9/15 Web Round-up

    Jason Reitman on the set of Up in the Air• James Rocchi sits down with Jason Reitman to talk “Up in the Air.” [AMC TV]

    • Jeffrey Wells bangs the Best Picture drum for Rodrigo Garcia’s as-of-yet un-acquired “Mother and Child.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Michael Douglas talks “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” [Empire]

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  • 9/8 Web Round-up

    Viggo Mortensen at the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival• John Hillcoat and Joe Penhall already looking for life after “The Road.” [Variety]

    • The “Slumdog” kids set to star opposite Anthony Hopkins? [PR Inside]

    • Eugene Hernandez reports from the Telluride tribute to Viggo Mortensen. [indieWIRE]

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  • Carey Mulligan becomes a Gekko, joins ‘Wall Street’ sequel cast

    Carey MulliganActress Carey Mulligan (she’s worth a double-dip today) will ignite the awards circuit this year.  Just you wait.  Most lead actress races will likely pit her against living legend Meryl Streep, giving her all the more clout as anyone who goes toe-to-toe with Streep enjoys the boost of simply being in her company.  I anticipate Mulligan could be so respected for her work in “An Education” that, with the right campaign, she could win an Oscar for her efforts.

    And now she’s filling out the next phase of her career nicely, joining the already impressive cast of Oliver Stone’s forthcoming “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.”  Entertainment Weekly’s Nicole Sperling reports (though Latino Review broke the story first back in June and, I’m sorry to say, I missed it) Mulligan has been picked to play the estranged daughter of Michael Douglas’s legenday Gordon Gekko character.

    Mulligan will share the screen with Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin and Frank Langella in what is turning into one of the must-see films of next year.  Her character will be romantically linked to LaBeouf’s, Sperling reports.

    Meanwhile, audiences await the release of “An Education,” which will no doubt mark Mulligan’s star-making moment and perhaps rack up a healthy kudo total along the way.  She deserves it.  Guy pointed to some nice notices on the web earlier this morning.

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  • Oliver Stone talks ‘Wall Street 2’ on Real Time

    Bill Maher is taking a brief mid-season break from live “Real Time” shows for the next couple of weeks.  Friday night’s show, when not an awkward schmooze fest on some of his guests’ part, made for a delightful three-part one-on-one discussion.  The guests were Cameron Diaz, Oliver Stone and Billy Bob Thornton, but as you’d imagine, the most fascinating discussion was the Stone segment.

    The director talked about religion, “the death of journalism” regarding the current administration’s decision to withhold images from Abu Ghraib, and, most applicable to what we do here, the forthcoming sequel to his 1987 film “Wall Street.”  Stone says he plans to start filming in August for an early 2010 release.  The “Wall Street” talk begins around the 7:00 minute mark:

  • What the $%@& is up with all the rehashing, Tinseltown?

    Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total RecallDoesn’t it just feel like you’re Arnold over there lately, strapped into that chair and force-fed the disgusting mindwipe that is Hollywood product these days?

    Patrick Goldstein has written a piece that touches on something that has been digging further and further under my skin the last couple of weeks: Hollywood’s disgusting rehashing of previous material.

    It’s nothing new, of course,  Remakes and sequelitis have plagued the industry from its earliest days.  When it comes to economics and brass tacks, the fact is, these places are run by business-minded individuals who look to capitalize on public interest at every turn.  And in an economy such as this, it simply spells disaster for moviegoers who long for something new.  It doesn’t even have to be GOOD but FRESH would be appreciated.  But what’s rather sad is the fact that a number of the pipelined reboots, remakes and sequels have ties to projects that never lit up the box office to begin with, clearly lost touch with audiences over the years, or in some cases, never even found much interest on home video.  How does that math compute?

    For some, it might seem like the oldest complaint in the book, but have you taken a look at what we have in store lately?  Just in the past few weeks a slew of titles have popped up either as newly announced projects or projects landing writers, directors, etc.  Do we really need a remake of “Total Recall” 19 years later?  Is America so deprived of the “Short Circuit” franchise that it needs a reboot as well (no doubt some weird capitalization on “WALL-E”)?  And a new “Scream” trilogy?  Really?

    The “Alien” prequel and “Predators” project (a sequel) have glimmers of promise but they also represent franchises that need to die a quick and merciful death.  Ditto “Robocop,” also getting the reboot treatment.  Did the box office nose dive of “Terminator Salvation” not teach these people anything?  Fox needs to buy the “Terminator” rights (which will be on the market soon) and end it all for us with “Predaterminalien.”  Just get it over with.  Smothered in the night.  There are other stories, folks.

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  • AIG is good. AIG works.

    Earlier this week we told you about Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel, which will be “ripped from today’s headlines” according to Fox’s Gregg Brilliant.  Today I ran across this image from Awards Daily’s coverage of the news and I couldn’t help but chuckle.  I’m not sure if AD’s Ryan Adams threw it together or not, so if the credit is due elsewhere, apologies.

    AIG is good.

  • ‘Wall Street’ sequel moving forward with Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf?

    Michael Douglas in Wall StreetNot long ago, what with the housing market on the fritz and certifiable capitalistic ruin staring down the face of America, not to mention stoke brokers being painted as the devils of the earth, it seemed a great time to revisit Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street,” the Michael Douglas starrer that put “greed is good” into the lexicon of trade pushers everywhere.

    Back before the release of Stone’s “W.,” screenwriter Stanley Weiser talked about the prescience of “Wall Street.”  At the time, “Gekko’s character was written to create an engaging, charming, but deceitful and brutal being,” Weiser said.  “I have nevertheless run into quite a number of younger people, who upon discovering that I co-wrote the film, wax rhapsodic about it . . . but often for the wrong reasons.”

    The time for a sequel, likely with a much more pointed message, seemed at hand.  Then word came that Stone had dropped out of pursuing a follow-up in favor of the long dormant “Pinkville” project.  But today, Patrick Goldstein offers the following juicy (but sourceless) tid-bit:

    …Fox is now saying the movie has a green light again. Stone is back aboard as director, Michael Douglas will reprise his role as Gordon Gekko and the studio is in negotiations with Shia LeBeouf to play a young Wall Street trader under Gekko’s spell — a somewhat updated version of the character Charlie Sheen played in the original film. The sequel’s original writer was Stephen Schiff, who has now moved on, with Allan Loeb (“Things We Lost in the Fire”) having done a rewrite of the script. Fox hopes to have the film in production as early as sometime this summer.

    The film is now simply going under the title of “Wall Street 2,” having shed its original “Money Never Sleeps” moniker. No one is offering a lot of specifics about the storyline, except to say that the focus remains on the Gekko character, whose exploits will closely reflect much of the greed and chicanery seen in the past year on Wall Street.

    I’m not really sure how I feel about it.  Getting someone like LaBeouf seems like the obvious play, but Stone is also something of a master at making an impact with the obvious, so perhaps this could work.  Read the rest over at The Big Picture.  (UPDATE: There’s also this AP story with quotes from Douglas and Fox spokesman Gregg Brilliant.)

    Meanwhile, allow me to submit this: Could “Wall Street” be the most dated film of all time?  Seriously.  That cell phone!  The art work!  Darryl Hannah!  Anyway…