Without any hyperbole, I have seen Oliver Stone’s Wall Street fifty times at least. As young men, sometime CHUD.com contributor Sean Fahey and I would spin it over and over again as we played Monopoly with me serving as the Bud Fox to his Gordon Gekko. The role-playing luckily ended there, because I don’t think Comic Con would have known how to handle a thirteen year-old rocking a Brooks Brothers suit telling passerby to suck his kneecaps. Then again, it’d be a refreshing change of pace from the costumes you see at those things.
Even though it hasn’t been able to escape the icy grasp of the 80’s, the film still packs a wallop. Somehow Wall Street is still a supremely quotable classic and Teldar Paper and Bluestar Airlines will forever be part of my name-dropping vernacular. I have to admit, I’m more excited about the upcoming Wall Street sequel [dumb title: Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps] than any other film in the works I’m not a part of. Scarily so. I want to see it now. Though I truly wish the Sheens were both reprising their roles, even in cameo form, I can’t see a downside here. More on that in a moment.
With Michael Douglas and Shia LeBeouf already in the mix, word has come down that Frank Langella has joined the proceedings to play the mentor character to Shia’s up and coming broker. Additionally, there’s a chance that Josh Brolin will be in the film, which takes the movie from being one of the best things ever to the best thing ever. Langella’s always been a solid actor (and a nakedperson in Lolita) but on the heels of Frost/Nixon his addition has more weight that it would have. Here’s an actor who can go toe-to-toe with Douglas (who can still bring it). If Josh Brolin truly comes in, you have another firebrand at the top of his game. I wonder if there’s any room in Kim Coates’ schedule…
Langella will be playing the ill-fated gentleman who Brolin’s character may have wronged, and Gordon Gekko this time around will be emerging from prison with intentions on contributing positively to the financial world. When his future son-in-law (Shia) runs afoul of Broilin, Gekko steps in and the game is afoot.
Oliver Stone is still capable of greatness despite the rather benign stuff he’s been cranking out of late. This is his first sequel and I can’t assume he’s doing it for love of money. If that was the case we’d had seen Still Salvadorin’ by now. In a filmscape where adult oriented fare is rare (and when good ones are made, like State of Play, people don’t buy tickets) this is a gift.
But seriously, we need a coda to the saga of the Fox family. Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen need to have a moment here. It’s a pandering sequel thing, but I harbor hope that Bud was able to make something of himself and his blue-collar dad was able to survive long enough to be proud of him.
Oh, and we need to see John C. McGinley as a reality television personality, Marvin the Fuckin’ Mindreader.
I’m now pondering Wall Street fanfic. I need to go.