The Sequel Is So Derivative Francis X. Clines - New York Times go to original August 30, 2009
The news of a "Wall Street" sequel had barely hit the press when Michael sat down for his interview with Ellen. The actor confirmed the news live on our show and then gave his thoughts on reuniting with director Oliver Stone! (April 29, 2009)
Gordon Gekko is coming back, and not a moment too soon. Requests have been posted in selected Manhattan apartment houses for residents to have their lodgings scouted as sets for Oliver Stone’s sequel to “Wall Street.” This was the film so entertaining in 1987 for dramatizing the supposedly worst sins and wiles of amoral highfliers in the financial district. Turns out that we didn’t fully explore back then the dearth of downtown scruples, but Mr. Stone is determined to update us. His sequel is entitled “Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.” Michael Douglas will be back as Gekko, his mantra sounding these days like timeless condemnation: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.” Gekko got his climactic comeuppance when the feds nailed him as a mere insider trader. The new film’s script will feature the more complex villainy of the Great Recession, tear-jerkingly familiar to groundlings with shrunken 401(k)’s: hedge funders, derivative traders and subprime lenders will chew the latest scenery. And, thanks be to Croesus, there is to be a giddy bonus-time scene, too, according to Hollywood reports. The script is rumored to open with Gekko coming out of prison after 14 years, ready to rebuild his life on the frenetically new Wall Street that would grease the latest fall. There’s no mention of cocaine or hair gel returning as actor props nor, alas, of my dream subplot featuring Joe Pesci as Bernie Madoff. But Frank Langella, a true Gotham actor, is cast as a pivotal, world-weary broker named Zabel. He’s a “regular guy” who enjoys his morning coffee and newspaper and heads down to Wall Street, according to the apartment audition notice in West Side buildings. One rumored version of the script has Zabel interrupting this morning routine to resolutely jump under a subway train as a tragic figure in the further adventures of Gordon Gekko. That would be the No. 1 local. Greed still sounds like good box office.
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Entertainment | August 2009 
Francis X. Clines - New York Times
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