Friday, May 1, 2009

Gordon Geko: Madoff With Wall Street

So I'm reading the Boston Herald's Inside Track (gossip column) the other day, and they report that Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone have signed the deal to team up again to bring us the sequel to their 1987 hit movie, "Wall Street". Douglas played Gordon Geko, a greedy Wall Street shark who coined the phrase, "Greed is good". Douglas will be reprising his Oscar-winning role as Gordon Geko in the yet-to-be titled sequel. A spokesman for Twentieth Century Fox said, "The project is timely and relevant given the state of the economy. We need to keep the storyline under wraps, but it's literally ripped from today's headlines."

My mind immediately went to a conversation I had at my kitchen table with the parent of my daughter's friends back in January. He had come to pick his twin girls up after they had spent the night, and we were chit chatting about the Bernie Madoff scandal. Many people and philanthropic organizations from Boston were directly affected (ripped off) by Madoff's $50 BILLION dollar Ponzi Scheme, and most of them in the Jewish community. My best friend's family has been financially ruined because of this man and I asked him if he had been affected directly or knew anyone that was.

The conversation continued, him naming the numerous friends that lost money with Madoff, and we talked about the unbelievable depths of which this scheme encompassed. We shared information we had heard, some here say, some direct information from the victims, but the general consensus was that the investors in Madoff's firm had lost everything and there was no getting it back. The conversation then turned to Hollywood.

"Someone will make this into a movie," he said.
"Oh, no doubt," I replied.

We agreed that when all the information comes out about Madoff and his scheme, it would have all the makings of a Hollywood epic.

"Who will play Madoff?" I said as the casting agent in my mind went to work.

Almost in unison, we both shouted out excitedly, "Michael Douglas!"
OF COURSE...No one else could even be considered, we said. I even briefly pondered with the thought of blogging about it, so sure of the prospect of a mega-hit.

Wednesday I sent that parent friend of mine a text message that said:


I'm reading the Inside Track in the Herald today and they report that Michael
Douglas and Oliver Stone will reunite for a sequel to "Wall Street". They report
that the project is timely and relevant to today's economy. "It's literally ripped
from today's headlines." Ummmm, was our conversation about that
right on???? Great minds think alike.


To which he promptly replied:

I heard about that on the radio this morning. I agree about great minds.

Ok? So you heard it here first.

13 comments:

Slyde said...

i read that last night too. i think it will probably suck, but who knows? they are fastracking it to start this summer, which is a bad sign..

SkylersDad said...

You are right, perfect casting at the exact time.

Heff said...

GREAT casting !!!!

Andy - Instafather said...

I can see Douglas playing Madoff, although I'd love to see someone off the wall do it, like Christopher Walken: We both put our pants on one leg at a time. The only difference is, I make gold records and Ponzi schemes. Cow bell!

Tuesday Taylor said...

Shouldn't you get paid a royalty or something? I hope Gordon Gekko will still use his suitcase-sized cell phone in the sequel!

John D. said...

RE: "...as Gordon Geko in the yet-to-be titled sequel."Douglas was brilliant in that movie, one of my all time faves. : ) And I believe I heard HIM say on an Interview a while back that it was going to be called Money Never Sleeps, one of his lines to Charlie Sheen in the original. : )

Prunella Jones said...

They should put a zombie or two in the movie to liven things up. Zombies are so hot right now.

Fancy Schmancy said...

I heard about it on the radio yesterday, it's supposed to pick up 10 years later when Gordon gets out of prison. Should be awesome!

Joe D. said...

Yessir! I'll be watching this.

Anonymous said...

I just love the phrase, "it's literally ripped from today's headlines." I'm gonna try really hard to use that in a sentence at least once today.

Wil Harrison.com

mo.stoneskin said...

You are clearly brilliant. I have to admit though, I also would have suggested Douglas if I was chit-chatting about said scandal.

Truth is, I haven't chit-chatted about the scandal with anyone. Apart from that voice in my head.

Girl Interrupted said...

I've never seen Wall St, but I'd really like to.

I have a friend who is obsessed with power and money, he's always quoting Gordon Gekko and then getting really p*ssed off at me for not knowing that he's quoting Gordon Gekko, he says it spoils the whole point of cool quotes :/

I think you're spot on about the casting for Madoff, I'm not a big fan of Douglas but there's no denying he plays that type of character to perfection.

mike said...

My grandmother, who just happens to be a Jewish lady in the Boston communtiy, lost quite a bit through this jackass. She is (un)fortunate enough to be in her very twilight years, but it still sucks.

By the way your word verification for my comment is "alcho". At least I can smile about that...