His "greed is good" mantra might have been custom designed to fit the attitudes that led to the credit crunch. And now Gordon Gekko looks set to have his own say on the world financial crisis. Hollywood is said to be speeding a sequel to Oliver Stone's classic tale of 80s excess, Wall Street, into cinemas.
The Hollywood Reporter says original star Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for his performance as the ruthless corporate raider, has signalled his interest in returning to the role, although he's sensibly waiting until he sees a script before signing on the dotted line.
21 writer Allan Loeb is currently working on a script that will centre on Gekko's character, who was last seen on the brink of a prison sentence after talking about illegal business transactions to a colleague wearing a police wire. Original writer Stanley Weiser wrote recently in the LA Times that Gekko does, in fact, go to jail, although his fate is left ambiguous in the movie.
It is not known whether Charlie Sheen, who starred as ambitious young stockbroker Bud Fox, will return in the sequel, nor whether Stone has any interest in the project. Ed Pressman, who produced the 1987 original, is returning for the new film, which will be titled Money Never Sleeps.
Douglas is a busy man at the moment, having agreed to play the flamboyant entertainer and musician Liberace for Steven Soderbergh, plus a car magnate with a runaway libido in Solitary Man.