Movies and other forms of popular entertainment tend to mirror the mood of the masses. Occasionally, imaginary characters can help to define an era, much like certain odd fashion trends (bell bottoms, for example) or silly collectibles crazes (think Cabbage Patch Kids). Eventually, though, things change, and those themes fade into obscurity or die a natural death.
Gordon Gekko, the sharp-tongued operator with the slicked-back hair in Oliver Stone's 1987 film, "Wall Street," was just such an icon. In many respects, he symbolized a time of aggressiveness and excess, of hubris and financial amorality, of living large with little fear of comeuppance. His famous exclamation, "greed is good," a sad cliche now, was arguably a rallying cry for no small number of Americans who thought their day in the sun had arrived -- and would never go.
Eventually, though, Gekko's fortunes, like those of several other real-life movers-and-shakers of the time, turned sour. So did the long-running bull market and the Reagan-era economic boom -- the one cut short by a violent crash, the other by the worst recession in a decade. By then, "Wall Street," and the moment in time it reflected, were being consigned to the dusty shelves of history, soon to be followed by another new age, different than before.
But now comes word that the character of Mr. Gekko is again being brought to life. According to the New York Times, the ruthless financier, played once more by actor Michael Douglas, is going to appear in a sequel to the original film. This time around, though, he will be engaging in "machinations on a global scale," note the producers, "in the hedge-fund era."
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.
“If you weren’t wearing suspenders before ‘Wall Street,’ you were certainly wearing them after,” he said. As for moral development, don’t expect too much from a villain who taught us that lunch is for wimps, and who bragged: “I create nothing. I own.”
“I don’t think he’s much different,” Mr. Douglas said. “He’s just had more time to think about what to do.”
Sounds like great timing for the moviemakers. Maybe not for everyone else, though.
Comments