Michael Douglas to Star in Wall Street 2
Apr 29, 2009 by Gina DiNunno

Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone are gearing up to make the Wall Street sequel - and with Wall Street riding a little lower these days, the timing couldn't be any better.

Douglas, who won an Oscar for his role as Gordon Gekko in the original, revealed the project was initially titled Money Never Sleeps until Stone, who directed Wall Street in 1987, came on board and changed it to Wall Street 2.

"It starts up a couple years ago. Gordon Gekko has just got out of jail and we kind of deal with all the issues that are going on now," said Douglas during his appearance on Ellen on Wednesday. "It's an excellent script. I'm really excited about it. There's going to be some exciting casting news coming up in the next couple of weeks, which I can't say yet."
Shia LaBeouf is in negotiations to join Douglas, according to Variety.

The original is one of my favorite movies from the 80s and this sequel seems like it might have potential especially with Douglas (now 64 years old) reprising his "Gordon Gekko" role and Oliver Stone back to direct. With this exciting news about the sequel, I am going to make the 1987 orginal the sixth issue of my 80s Movie Trailer of the Week feature I call "Preview Review."

The original also starred Charlie Sheen with an outstanding performance as "Bud Fox." Sheen had also turned in an outstanding performance as "Pvt. Chris Taylor" in Stone's 1986 film Platoon. As of right now, Sheen does not look like he will be appearing in the sequel.

Here is the original trailer for Wall Street...

As a bonus, here is the trailer for the 20^th Anniversary DVD which was released back in 2007...

Wall Street appeared at the top of my popular list of Most Inspirational Speeches from 80s Movies list. That issue is definitely worth checking out if you have not already done so. The key line from that speech, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." was voted as the #57 all-time movie quote by the American Film Institute (AFI) and as #70 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007. I would rank it much higher personally, but the fact that it appears in the top 100 of all time is pretty impressive. It is reported that the speech was inspired by a similar speech given by Ivan Boesky at the University of California's commencement ceremony in 1986. Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur who paid a $100 million penalty to the SEC to settle insider trading charges later that same year. In his speech, Boesky said "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."

I have complained often about all of the recent plans to remake classic 80s movies, but making sequels is a different story especially if it is warranted and done with respect and care. In this case, Wall Street 2 seems to be going at it the right way and thus I am actually anxious to see how it turns out.

That'll do it for another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Hope you enjoy the "Preview Review" issues and please let me know if there are any 80s movies that you want to see me cover. Thanks as always for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the new Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: Somebody sent me this nature video about the Wood Spider and I was quite shocked to find out some things about this species that I hadn't known before (warning, might be a tad offensive to some folks)...

Quote of the day: There are two quotes that I love from Wall Street and both are said by character "Lou Mannheim" played by Hal Holbrook...
"The main thing about money, Bud, is that it makes you do things you don't want to do."
and
"A man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss."