Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2011

Courtesy of Dream Arts

Oliver Stone has mellowed a bit over the past few years. When promoting his films in Japan in the ’80s and ’90s, he’d tell the local press that the CIA and the mainstream media in the US were out to get him. Now, he says the financial manipulators are the bad guys—a theme he explores in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to his hit 1987 film Wall Street. In the new movie, Stone traces the link between the go-go ’80s and the financial upheaval of 2008.

“These days, it appears that greed is legal,” the 64-year-old director said during a recent visit to Tokyo, referring to the famous “Greed is good” line uttered in the original film by the main character, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). “The big players are not guys like Gekko, but major banks and hedge funds.”

The sequel picks up after Gekko is released from prison for insider trading. It is the summer of 2008, and the former corporate raider wants to get back in the game. He finds a new apprentice in his estranged daughter’s fiancé (Shia LeBeouf), an investment analyst caught between two Wall Street firms (loosely modeled on Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns). “Does [Gekko] regret his previous life? Or is he still just doing what’s best for him? Audiences can judge for themselves whether or not he has become a good guy,” said Stone, who has a cameo in the film.

The director—a three-time Oscar winner for Midnight Express (which he wrote; 1978), Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989)—said his inspiration for picking up the story after 23 years was the 2008 economic meltdown. “The 1980s were a very prosperous time,” he said. “It was a time [when] relaxed credit policies really started to come in vogue. I wanted to depict the connection between that time and the recent meltdown.”

Stone is no stranger to the financial canyons of Wall Street—his late father used to work for a brokerage firm. “Back in his day, investment banks were there to manage money for clients, but that role got lost somewhere along the way,” he said.

In preparing for the sequel, Stone said his research showed him that finance companies made 47 percent of the profits in America in 2008, and up to 70 percent of that amount was made for themselves. “The money got so big. I remember hearing guys on Wall Street say, ‘It’s just a billion-dollar hedge fund.’ That’s unbelievable arrogance.”

Of LeBeouf and British actress Carey Mulligan, who plays Gekko’s daughter, Stone said, “I met people on Wall Street exactly like them. They’re hungry and they are idealists. With Carey, I was concerned at first if she could pull off an American accent. But that element also allowed her to occupy her role as someone who is not a typical American.”

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps opens in Japan on Feb 4. Chris Betros is the editor of Japan Today (www.japantoday.com).