Nicholas Jarecki’s feature directorial debut in Arbitrage has just made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival out in Park City, Utah, and boasts an impressive cast that includes Richard Gere in the lead, supported by Tim Roth, Susan Sarandon, Brit Marling, and Nate Parker.

A new clip from the film has surfaced over at Deadline, showing Parker coming to Gere’s rescue as he sets up an alibi for them. We can probably safely presume that something has gone wrong for Gere in the previous scene, no doubt involving the crossing of the line of the law.

“Richard Gere plays a hedge fund trader desperate to unload his company before his fraud is found out. An unexpected misstep forces him to turn to a figure from his past played by Nate Parker.”

Parker and Marling are both rising stars, with the former currently starring in the George Lucas-produced Red Tails, which has just been released in US cinemas this past weekend, and Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, which is also playing at Sundance. Marling went to Sundance last year with two films premiering that she both led and co-wrote, Sound of My Voice and Another Earth (the latter of which will be released here on DVD/Blu-Ray on 2^nd April this year, and is definitely worth buying if you missed its theatrical release at the end of last year).

Jarecki made his writing debut on Gregor Jordan’s The Informers, co-writing with Bret Easton Ellis the adaptation of Ellis’ original novel of the same name. Having worked with such an esteemed writer already, it will be interesting to see how he works writing this project solo, and how he’ll fare as a director too, making his feature debut. As it’s just making its premiere at Sundance, there’s no word yet on a theatrical release either side of the Atlantic, but if it gets a strong reception, it will no doubt be picked up for distribution soon. Until then, here’s the new clip of Gere and Parker to enjoy. It doesn’t set up a significant indication of what we can expect from the film, but the cast and synopsis alone are enough to keep me intrigued.

ARBITRAGE from Rick Grayson on Vimeo.

From the creators of Cyrus, Jay and Mark Duplass, Jeff, Who Lives at Home has been given a new poster this week.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September, looks at the complicated relationship between two brothers, played by Jason Segel and Ed Helms.

On his way to the store to buy wood glue, slacker Jeff (Segel) looks for signs from the universe to determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. He might discover his destiny, however, when he spends the day with his brother Pat (Helms) as he tracks his possibly adulterous wife.

Jeff Who Lives at Home also stars Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon, and is set to be released on 20th April. Here’s the new poster, courtesy of /Film. As usual, click to enlarge. And in case you missed it, the great first trailer has just been released too.

After getting great reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Duplass brothers’ upcoming film Jeff, Who Lives At Home looks to be one of the funniest comedy-dramas of the year. Led by Jason Segel and Ed Helms as brothers Jeff and Pat, the film was co-written and -directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, and also stars Judy Greer as Pat’s wife and Susan Sarandon as the brothers’ mother, Sharon.

The first trailer for the film has just hit the net, courtesy of Apple, and it is quite simply brilliant. Funny in all the right ways, and with a plot that makes the comedy mean something. Like last year’s 50/50, it looks life-affirming with a smile on its face.

“On his way to the store to buy wood glue, Jeff looks for signs from the universe to determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Jeff just may find the meaning of his life… and if he’s lucky, pick up the wood glue as well.”

Segel and Helms have both been rising well in recent years, Segel particularly doing well from both How I Met Your Mother and films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bad Teacher, and the upcoming The Muppets. And it’s great to see that Greer is getting recognised for the great comedy actress she is as well; we can look forward to seeing her in The Descendants opposite George Clooney later this month too.

Jeff, Who Lives At Home will be coming to cinemas in the UK on 20^th April, which is a date that really can’t come fast enough. I was looking forward to this a lot already, and now the trailer has just increased that anticipation exponentially. I can’t wait. If you want to watch the trailer in HD, then you can do so over at Apple. Enjoy.

The Wachowski brothers and Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel, Cloud Atlas, is set to be one of the most intriguing films to look forward to next year. With a notoriously labyrinthine plot, the possibility of adapting it for the big screen sounds as though it is a mammoth task not to be taken lightly.

We got our first look at the film when some photos surfaced from the set back in September, followed by the image of the directors and the novelist on the set just before Christmas, having wrapped production. We’ve now got a new image – the first official look at a character – to share with you, along with some terrific concept art for the film, courtesy of HanCinema via Collider.

The official synopsis for the film is yet to be released, so we don’t know how much, if at all, it will differ from the book, but the original novel’s synopsis looks a little like this, courtesy of Amazon:

“A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation — the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.”

The adaptation has a tremendous cast, including Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, James D’Arcy, and Doona Bae, the last of whom we get to see in this new image. The cast have been announced as interestingly taking on multiple roles through the course of the film, which is certainly something that has peaked our interest.

Tykwer and the Wachowski brothers worked together to co-write the screenplay adaptation of Mitchell’s novel, and with production now wrapped, things are looking good to meet the expected release towards the end of next year. No word yet on a specific release date, but if all goes well in post-production, we should have seen it on the big screen here by this time next year. I can’t wait. That should give me just enough time to read the original novel. Without further ado, here are the great new images. As usual, with the concept art, click to enlarge. That the synopsis makes mention of a traveller in 1850 and the second of the concept images is titled ‘Seoul, 2144′ should give you an idea of the scope we can look forward to with this next year.

Hugh Grant (About a Boy) has been added to the cast of Cloud Atlas, the bold cinematic adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel of the same name.

Grant, who has been somewhat absent from the screen since 2009′s Did You Hear About The Morgans, will star opposite Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw, Bae Doona, Jim Sturgess and David Gyasi.

Synopsis: A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation — the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

Cloud Atlas, to be directed by The Wachowskis and Tom Tywker, is scheduled to shoot in Scotland, Germany and Spain as of Friday, September 16.

Source: Screen Daily

We recently reported on the intriguing movement of the highly anticipated big screen adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, with the Wachowskis and Tom Twker running two separate shoots alongside one another, and now there appears to be confirmation of another addition to the cast.

The excellent Jim Sturgess Online pointed us to an interview the actor gave to USA Today to promote his latest film, One Day in which he stars with Anne Hathaway, and in conversation about his musical projects the rumours of Sturgess’s role in the film appears to be confirmed,

While he’s still waiting for a Broadway producer to call, Sturgess dabbles in music on his own. He sang three songs on the soundtrack for his movie Heartless, and he continually writes tunes with his girlfriend, La Roux keyboardist Mickey O’Brien. Together they have a musical collaboration called Tragic Toys.

Sturgess says he and O’Brien have similar taste in music and are always borrowing from each other’s collections — she’s recently turned him on to Hungarian gypsy music — and hope to record their songs sooner than later.

We’ve suddenly realized we’ve got all these songs sitting around, and it’d be great to do something with them at some point, definitely,” says Sturgess, who next ventures to Berlin to film the Wachowski brothers’ new movie Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry.

JSO found the news first and tweeted that his casting was indeed confirmed, a tweet which was then retweeted by Mickey O’Brien herself, so it all seems set for Sturgess to continue the rapid upward turn in his career trajectory. Sturgess joins an impressive cast with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry joined by Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon and Ben Whishaw in the epic, centuries-spanning story which proved a considerable success for Mitchell. More news on which role(s) Sturgess is playing shortly.

Cloud Atlas, the often-deemed unfilmable novel by David Mitchell that spans several times and places from 19^th Century Australia to post-apocalyptic Hawaii, will be filmed by two separate crews running parallel to each other, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The historic sci-fi epic, starring Halle Berry, Tom Hanks and Ben Whishaw to name a few, was penned by Wachowski siblings Andy and Lana and will be directed by Tom Tykwer. In an interesting attempt to make this difficult text come to life Tykwer is expected to use the same actors for multiple characters and use two entirely separate film crews to shoot scenes in both Berlin and Babelsberg, Germany.

The sheer span and complexity of the novel makes for an eye-watering prospect. It will mix 19^th century period with futuristic sci-fi, interlocking six lives across a vast narrative. Producer Stefan Ardnt has confidence in the Wachowski script, however, saying they have “found a way to tell these stories in an amazing, linear and very cinematic way”. Let’s hope so, because Cloud Atlas could be very exciting indeed.

Story by Richard Parkin

The Duplass Brothers have a lot of goodwill and momentum following their leap into the mainstream with Cyrus last year and fans of their mumblecore work, notably Baghead, will be very interested to see how their new film, Jeff Who Lives at Home, will fare when it plays at Toronto in a couple of months.

Jason Segel stars with Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer and it’s clear that the directing duo are attracting some big names to them films, and the first looks today give nothing away however they’ll go far in enticing Duplass fans.

Here’s what synopsis there is,

 When he leaves his house on a seemingly banal errand for his disgruntled mother, Jeff discovers that the universe might be sending him signals about the nature of his destiny

Here are the pics,

Merci beaucoup pour la Playlist

Mumblecore favourites turned Hollywood players, the Duplass brothers, have another script prepped and ready to send out to the studios, which would appear to cover slightly different terrain to their quirky comedy from last year, Cyrus.

The brothers (Mark and Jay) are shopping around a project described as a “dramatic thriller” which goes by the name of Pitchfork and tells the story of a bereaved mother who strikes back at the titular music website, whom she believes is the cause of her rock star son’s untimely death. Cyrus co-star Jonah Hill has been mentioned as a potential cast member, as has Susan Sarandon as the vengeful mother. She’s also in another film from the siblings, the upcoming comedy Jeff Who Lives At Home, which also stars Ed Helms and Jason Segel.

This may seem like somewhat of a deviation for the boys, but their little-seen second feature (2008’s Baghead) was actually a comedy/horror hybrid, so this change in tone isn’t completely new, and Cyrus, although billed as a comedy, had a shade of darkness underneath the more humorous elements.

Here’s hoping a studio expresses some interest, and with a couple of bankable names already in the mix (and the sizable fanbase the brothers have accrued), we may see this come to fruition soon.

Via Cinema Blend.

Cloud Atlas seems to be developing something akin to momentum now, with casting news growing and bits of plot information beginning to percolate down. We’d already told you that Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent and Susan Sarandon had been cast and that multiple roles were in the offing for each principal. It seems that Hugo Weaving has taken on board all that Agent Smith learnt about getting more done with more of you and will apparently play six roles.

Cloud Atlas is known to consist of six primary story threads, spanning many centuries and so presumably the principals taking roles across the various segments is intended to help emphasise linking themes, rather than confuse those who miss the first few minutes. It also keeps the wage bill down for what could wind up being a bloated anthology piece. Anyway, the Herald Sun seem to have it from the horse’s mouth, quoting Weaving as follows:-

That’s a project that’s really exciting because all the actors will be playing more than one role… I actually have six characters in the same film and they are all different people in six different stories.

This could wind up being grand stuff, or it could prove to be a right old muddle. I hope I am not alone in believing that the Wachowskis have been incrementally losing their way since their high water mark of Bound and The Matrix. Whether they can find their way back to their old form, we will see.

Source: SlashFilm

Hey Ladies (and gentlemen), put down that Remote Control and Ch-Check It Out. A truly Intergalactic roster of (mostly) comedic A-list talent are on display below in the Beastie Boys-inspired short, Fight For Your Right – Revisited.

Playing the rap trio (and what look’s like an older version of the group, out to Sabotage the younger ones) are Elijah Wood, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Jack Black, John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell. The two minute trailer is also jam-packed with a host of big-name cameos who have managed to Get It Together to appear in the short, including the likes of Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson (they may have been filming HBO show, Bored to Death, nearby), Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon and Stanley Tucci (to name but a few!)

Directed by Adam Yauch (one of the members of the group) the film received its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year, and the full version will be released as part of a tie-in with the Beastie Boys new album, Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (released on May 3rd).

Thanks to Slash Film for the heads-up.

Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction) has signed on to co-star in Arbitrage.

Roth will star opposite Richard Gere (Primal Fear), Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise), Aubrey Graham (Charlie Bartlett) and Brit Marling (Another Earth) in the crime-drama.

Arbitrage focuses on a troubled hedge fund magnate (Gere), so desperate to sell his trading empire that when he makes a mistake he turns to an unlikely person for help and that leads him down a dangerous trail.

Nicholas Jarecki (The Outsider) is attached to direct, with production expected to begin shortly in New York City.

Roth can currently be seen in the crime-mystery series Lie to Me.

Source: Deadline

Edward Norton does the identical twin routine in Tim Blake Nelson’s comedy about a pair of brothers whose divergent lives reconnect when news of the death of one draws the other back home.

One brother is a pot growing entrepreneur with a crippling lack of smarts and a talent for trouble while the other brother is an Ivy League professor on the verge of a huge promotion and keen to maintain the distance he has travelled from his humble beginnings.

When the learned sibling realises that reports of his brother’s death are not only greatly exaggerated, but are part of a plot to take down a domineering local crime boss, the Slackerdemic double act get to work at rebuilding bridges and sorting their lives out. Which is nowhere near as trite as it sounds. It’s a keenly felt, visually interesting and surprisingly nuanced comedy.

Edward Norton takes on the roles of both brothers while aplomb, though his pot grower from the sticks is at first a little too cornball, but as the film progresses we find both to be layered performances, capable of engaging our emotions and elevating the film. Norton has a habit of allowing the other characters to develop around him, almost fading to the background but this is why he is so magnetic a screen presence.

It’s a fairly standard premise elevated by a great supporting cast with Susan Sarandon’s role as the twins’ mother is soaked in pathos and gin and Richard Dreyfuss’s duplicitous drug baron Pug Rothbaum (a Coenesque name if ever there was one) is a coarse and chilling presence. It’s always great to see Melanie Lynskey on screen and Blake Nelson is virtually unrecognisable in his supporting role and you get the feeling that this film was made as a passion project rather than an attempt to attract a wide audience. Its cast is its greatest asset and its witty script will surprise those expecting a pothead crime caper – it is far deeper, and far more enjoyable than that.

Leaves of Grass is out now on DVD and VOD.

****~ (4/5)

Sundance breakout star Brit Marling (Political Disasters) has been cast in Arbitrage, Movieline has revealed.

Marling, who replaces Eva Green (Casino Royale), will star opposite Susan Sarandon (The Lovely Bones) and Richard Gere (Pretty Woman) in the financial drama.

A troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.

Writer/director Nicholas Jarecki (The Informers) is at the helm, with production expected to commence in April.

Marling can be seen in Another Earth and Sound of My Voice, both of which are due for release later this year.

Lions Gate Home Entertainment have been kind enough to give us three copies of their new movie, Leaves of Grass to give away to you, our readers. The movie stars Edwards Norton…. Edward Norton (!) Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, Keri Russell and Tim Blake Nelson.

Synopsis: Edward Norton stars with… Edward Norton in the comedic thriller, LEAVES OF GRASS, which is out on DVD on 21 February 2011 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Norton plays dual roles in this witty thriller which also boasts an all-star cast including Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss, Keri Russell and Tim Blake Nelson.

Ivy League professor Bill Kincaid’s (Norton) life takes a downward spiral when he returns home to rural Oklahoma after receiving news of his twin brother’s murder in a pot deal gone bad. Upon arrival, he finds that reports of Brady’s (also played by Norton) death are “greatly exaggerated” and is quickly caught up in one of his brother’s schemes. A scheme in which Brady requires an air-tight alibi.

Despite severe doubts, Bill decides to participate in his brother’s plan, choosing to spend his time as “Brady” in the company of his mother, Daisy (Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon) who has retired from the counter-culture and prematurely chosen to move into a retirement home – and Janet (Keri Russell), an educated woman who has by-passed academia in favour of a quieter life.

Meanwhile, Brady and his best friend/business partner Bolger (writer-director Tim Blake Nelson) use this perfect alibi to confront one of the area’s most notorious drug dealers, Pug Rothbaum (Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss), about some unfinished business. Will Bill be prepared to risk everything to help his brother if things don’t go according to plan?

Leaves of Grass is out on DVD on February 21, courtesy of Lions Gate Home Entertainment.

DVD technical details:

• Number of discs: 1
• RRP: £12.99
• Certificate: 15 (UK and Ireland)
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Running time: 101 Minutes Approx.

To be in with a chance of winning a copy of the DVD, all you have to do is answer the following question using the form below:

Who directed the movie, Leaves of Grass?

The small print:

• Open to UK residents only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close 25th February 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

Ellen Mirojnick worked as costume designer on 80s classic Wall Street, as well as last year’s sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Her work on the film was so successful that she has been nominated in the ‘Excellence In Contemporary Film’ category in this year’s Costume Designers Guild awards.

We were recently given the opportunity to conduct an e-mail interview with Ellen, which we present to you below this featurette from the movie:

———-

HUG: Obviously you worked on the original Wall Street, did you feel like this was a continuation of your job  there?

Ellen Mirojnick: Actually, yes. I felt that the original film opened the door to our perception of finance and  Wall Street . WallStreet Money Never Sleeps closes t­­hat chapter.

HUG: As I understand it, you used the costumes to emphasise character traits, for instance reflecting Gekko’s shark-like personality in his suit. Can you explain how this came about and provide some additional insight?

EM: As the costume designer, I interpret the essence of the story  thru the character’s imagery. This story has Gordon Gekko as an outsider. In this film, there’s a man who has nothing to do with the Street. He takes his time circling the story, sharking, until he finds a way to “feed” until he can. He Gekko’s up, and swims off to other waters.

HUG: Were there any other ways in which costume was used to tell the story?

EM: Costume is always used to tell the story. It is the film’s visual language. It is how we understand the story and the  characters that inhabit the film.

HUG: To the layman, there seems to be much less scope for costume design on a contemporary film like Wall Street than on a period piece or a sci-fi film. How do you put your stamp on a movie where, by the very nature of the characters, they ought all to be wearing Armani suits?

EM: In my opinion, a contemporary film is the most difficult to design. Most people don’t realize what actually goes into the making of it. I have always liked replicating the time and place that we live in. I love creating history. It is the contemporary film that will be the period piece in 20 years! It will be the piece that documents our history. To create a contemporary film, there are many things to take into account. Your first job is to translate the story and the characters .It is the designers decision if the character is best off wearing an Armani suit. Is there another suit that will work better for the film or actor? These types of questions are considered while translating the story with every character in every scene. If the designer’s  answer is found in a ready-to-wear garment or is illustrated and crafted in a costume workroom. The designer’s job is still the same.

HUG: Film making is a collaborative process, how much influence did Mr Stone have on the designs?

EM: Mr Stone, being the writer and director influences and  informs the design of the film. He would continually weigh in on the look and direction of the characters. Our relationship has a long history with support and a solid trust. Given that, he was able to let me freely create the characters, knowing the choices I made and were ultimately going to tell and serve the story he was creating.

HUG: And, how different was working on a film like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps as opposed to, say GI: Joe or Starship Troopers?

EM: There are no two films that are the same. Creating each world is a process that has different components and design challenges. The differences lie in the translation of the story and the director’s vision.

The best analogy I can share is, you are travelling to 3 different parts of the world. Each country  a new foreign language. You don’t know the language, but have to communicate daily. You wouldn’t have a choice , but to learn how to communicate by learning the language.

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on 31^st January.  You can order your copy here or rent it here.

Susan Sarandon, Al Pacino and Eva Green are attached to star in drama film Arbritage.

Written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki, Arbritage will focus on a hedge-fund magnate (Pacino) who struggles to complete the sale of his trading business to a big bank before the level of his fraud is exposed.

Sarandon will play Pacino’s wife, while Green will play his art-dealer mistress.

Arbritage will start filming early next year.

Deadline reported this one.

Glee creator Ryan Murphy is no stranger to The Rocky Horror Show. Having just finished work on an episode of his hit show that pays homage to the classic, putting the ‘time warp’ in the capable hands of William McKinley High School’s Glee Club, Murphy has been approached by Fox 2000 regarding a remake of the cult hit (via Deadline).

The Rocky Horror Show – which still enjoys sell-out screenings thirty-five years after its initial release – has grossed north of £100 million to date, making it the longest running theatrical release of all time and ripe for a re-imagining. Responsible for launching Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick to fame, the musical has quite the legacy.

Murphy, whose Eat Pray Love is still finding an audience in cinemas, is already committed to an adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart and an untitled romantic comedy for Sony Pictures Entertainment – for which he was paid $5 million to write and direct – that will reunite him with Julia Roberts.

Should Murphy take The Rocky Horror Show under his experienced wing, the phenomenon may well be in good hands. To be certain, however, we will have to wait until October 26th when the relevant episode of Glee jumps to the left, then takes a step to the right etc.

So readers, let’s do the time warp again?!

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the follow up to Oliver Stone’s 1987 Wall Street and he is back in the directing chair here. The film surrounds the recent economic meltdown that hit America and the rest of the world.

The film has an impressive cast including Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon and the mighty Eli Wallach.

We were lucky enough to sit down at a roundtable with Oliver Stone this week and you can read what Oliver Stone had to say below.

On how and why he came to direct Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

In 2006 I said yes lets try something, Stephen Shiff wrote a good script but it was celebrating the hedge fund culture, you know there was Russian hedge funders in Monaco and there was a scene with a guy who had a submarine in the harbour of New York. It was James Bond stuff and it was just rich people, no point.

2008 gave it definition, a sense of karma, that there had been some reckoning in this system. Crime and punishment. After that Allan Loeb had a script although I wasn’t involved. in 2009 I read it, I liked it. It had a hook, it had a good idea but it was still based on hedge funders and we changed it to bankers. We changed a lot of the plot over the course of our research. The movie is about banks, it’s an amazing story compared to the ’87 story because it really is about the failure of banks in the United States to maintain the system. They were no longer the institutional foundation and they had to be bailed out. It’s an enormous story really, historically important. If we ever have a history left.

Getting Michael Douglas back as Gekko

He wanted me to do it. It was a lifetime marker for him and he actually wanted to make the movie so he approached me in 2006 with Ed Pressman, the associate producer, and it fits him, it’s like an old shoe. I loved him in the role. It’s natural to him, I’m not saying he’s Gordon Gekko though. He’s certainly much more devoted to family than Gordon Gekko. He’s certainly had those issues though between money and time, you feel like Michael on a certain level, in the eighties, he was much that style and he changed over time.

How Gekko was perhaps misunderstood as a heroic figure in the first Wall Street film.

Didn’t Godard say every popular film is a result of a misunderstanding between the filmmaker and the public.

In the original I think Gekko was a one note villain, he was pure villain to me because he was a an aggressive, shallow, money seeking person. I think people liked him, they found him exciting. The people who actually went to work on the Street went with the idea of being legitimate not going to jail. Put it this way, money was sexy and to make money was acceptable in the Reagan world. That’s changed. People are idealistic now. Shia LaBeouf plays a young trader who basically is trying to capitalise in an alternate energy company, that’s important. There’s going to be a new bubble soon with alternate energy. I hope so, I’d love that, that would be a good bubble. Something good might come out of that bubble as opposed to the real estate market.

How the financial story works in the film.

It’s a background only to me though. We made it about six people in the foreground. These are a mother and her son, a father and his daughter, three financial predators (Josh Brolin and Frank Langella included) trying to trap Shia LaBeouf in their shenanigans. To me that’s what the story is about, people. I’m a dramatist and those people who want outrage from the movie, Oliver Stone the David throwing rocks at the financial institution may not find that. It’s about humanity.

The movie to me is about trust. At a macro level it is the banks and society and the concept of a civilisation going on with a foundation and you cannot put money in a bank in America. The concept of banking has lost its meaning. On a micro level these six people do betray each other at various points in the movie. It’s very important, there’s love and there’s trust but there’s also greed and betrayal. Everybody fucks everybody.

The banking story is great but it’s a documentary. There’s much more coverage of the financial story than there ever was. The investigation was quick. We heard about the Goldman scam before it was in the press because we talked to Eliot Spitzer who was Governor of New York and had investigated Wall Street and made many enemies. He had investigated AIG and Goldman and he told me, you know Goldman is hedging this whole market, they played the securities both ways, long and short. That struck me as a great idea for a movie because that would be the concept of the bookie playing both sides. We pushed that point in the movie.

Excess, the world of privilege and what excess he has seen in his life.

I’ve seen so much excess, it’s unbelievable. I’d say marketing campaigns on movies. I saw something at Cannes that is unbelievable, the red carpet is endless, the food is endless. The New York premiere was excessive but of course you can always say that is the movie business going back to the thirties. When you see it at every party you go to, groaning with food. I do think the world’s richness, the concentration of wealth in the nineties and two-thousands jumped. China is the biggest story of economic prosperity in the history of the world, India, Russia. The whole middle class system, the concept of reality television, that everyone is a princess, that you can have a home for free without earning any money is so Robin Hood distorted that it’s really fucked up. It’s crazy that you buy a house for nothing and not have anything, no collateral, that’s true excess. Where does it end.

The subject matter of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and its audience.

It’s not easy to make these kind of movies. Its a tough subject, arcane, not enough violence, people don’t hurt each other in that way. It’s a throwback in a way to a more adult drama and you have limitations. Some young people will not see a movie with a young man in a suit, they just don’t understand it, why is he not in a baseball cap with a fucking basketball t-shirt on. Can’t get through, there’s a visual wall. I think so. The movie always tracked older, we noticed that from day one.

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps is out in UK cinemas now and you can watch the trailer here.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps arrives in UK cinemas on 6th October. To celebrate 20th Century Fox has given us three goodie bags to give away.

In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Michael Douglas returns in his Oscar winning role as Gordon Gekko, disgraced former titan of the financial world. Emerging from a lengthy stint in prison, he must learn to adjust to a new era of corporate greed where the stakes are higher than ever before. Gekko, however, has not lost his touch.

As idealistic young banker Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) discovers, Wall Street is about to see the return to its master manipulator. The film also stars James Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon and Frank Langella.

To win one of three Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps goodie bags containing money clip, mousemat, set of cufflinks, Blackberry case, t-shirt and A3 leather portfolio case, just answer this simple question using the form below.

Which actor played Bud Fox in the first Wall Street film?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Wednesday 13th October at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Find out more at Wall Street: Money Never Sleep’s Facebook page.

Check out the trailer here:

Competition Closed