Gekko is Coming Back ... But Will Greed Still Be Good?

It may seem an unlikely time to revisit the notion that "greed is good", but it was revealed yesterday that plans are advancing on a sequel to the 1987 film Wall Street. Titled Money Never Sleeps, the film meets Wall Street's iconic trader Gordon Gekko as he leaves prison. While Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for the part in the original, has not signed to reprise the role, he has not dismissed the possibility either.

Wall Street, released in 1987 shortly after the last major crash in the financial markets, captured a moment in the popular imagination. Although the film tells a highly moral tale, with Gekko going to prison for his misdeeds, it is remembered as a paean to greed.

Douglas has been dogged by the character. After taking part in a UN panel on the nuclear test ban treaty last month Douglas was asked by reporters to compare nuclear Armageddon to the "financial Armageddon on Wall Street" - "Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?".

"I'm not saying that," Douglas replied. "And my name is not Gordon. He's a character I played 20 years ago."

The character was based on several notorious financial figures, including insider trader Ivan Boesky and corporate raider Carl Icahn. The script for the new film, scheduled for release by 20th Century Fox in 2010, is being written by Allan Loeb, a former Chicago stockbroker and gambler who wrote the gambling film 21 and Things We Lost in the Fire. The original film's director Oliver Stone is not involved.

Wall Street's writer, Stanley Weiser, recently collaborated with Stone on W, the George Bush biopic. Writing in the Los Angeles Times last week, he noted that the original message of the film had been misconstrued.

"I never could have imagined that [the Gekko] persona and his battle cry would become part of the public consciousness, and that the core message of Wall Street - remember, he goes to jail in the end - would be so misunderstood by so many," Weiser wrote. "Gordon Gekko has been mythologised and elevated from the role of villain to that of hero."