Forbes (via Dealbook) has some details on The Sequel:
Michael Douglas at least will reprise his role as Gordon Gekko * * * He's just finished a prison sentence in the sequel, according to Deadlinehollywooddaily.com, while actor Shia LaBeouf will play a young trader engaged to Gekko's estranged daughter. The plot sees LaBeouf's character suspect that a stock-shorting hedge fund manager * * * is somehow responsible for the surprise suicide of his mentor. The trader then goes to ex-con Gekko for help seeking revenge on the villainous hedge fund chief.
Fox apparently wanted the steely psycho-killer from No Country for Old Men, Javier Bardem, to play the hedge fund manager (though there's some dispute about that), but he rejected it. The film's casting director notes that Gekko et al were seen as heroes in the go-go 80s, but now public perceptions of bankers and hedge fund managers have been shaped by Madoff.
So it seems that even Gordon Gekko is not evil enough to feed filmmakers' anti-capitalism these days. And, oddly, hedge funds come off worst of all, despite the fact that they arguably had the least to do with our current mess.
All this is consistent with my theory of anti-capitalism in film discussed in my Wall Street and Vine and Imagining Wall Street. In others, it's a perception that is at least to some extent created by as well as used by films relating to business.
I'll be relating all this to the financial crisis in a talk at Michigan State in September. Watch this space for more.
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