Shia LaBeouf SEC Investigation?

We all know the story by now. In preparation for his role in the upcoming movie, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf spent some time hanging around the offices of various securities firms, including John Thomas Financial.

Questions have been raised by, among others, Sam Antar, about just what JTF taught LaBeouf, since quicker than a Goldman Sachs IB can say, "I have a dynamite CDO I can sell you," LaBeouf traded $20,000 into a heavy line.

Since the SEC is now in a grab the headlines investigation mode, friends tell me certain SEC people are taking a look at the LaBeouf-John Thomas Relationship. Nothing heavy yet, I'm told, just poking around. But nothing would garner the SEC more headlines then busting people around LaBeouf.

Wall Street 2 Review from Cannes

By Roger Friedman

Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street” sequel, subtitled “Money Never Sleeps,” is a hit. It’s a formula Hollywood movie in the great sense. For the first time in a long time, the formula works.

There are many good things to say about “Money Never Sleeps.” The script sings and zings with excellent dialogue and memorable one liners. It’s a simple story of greed and morality, with a twist you can see from the beginning. But the players are winning, and Stone doesn’t get bogged down. He plays the 2008 financial crisis like an end of the world movie. It’s “Deep Impact” but the falling Dow Jones averages are meteors hurtling to Earth.

Michael Douglas returns as Gordon Gekko after 23 years. It’s a slow starter performance, deceptively sly. I kind of prefer him this year in “Solitary Man,” but don’t be mistaken: as he says in the film, Gordon Gekko is back.

Lots of great supporting performances: Shia LeBoeuf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, John Mailer, Susan Sarandon are all great. Eli Wallach is just perfect as the head a sinking Wall Street firm. He’s 93 and better than ever. Charlie Sheen has a welcome, winning cameo as Bud Fox. Sylvia Miles returns as the cranky real estate agent.

Read the rest here.

Shia LaBeouf Meets Hardcore Wall Street

Shia LaBeouf co-stars in the upcoming Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, with Michael Douglas. He did some research for Wall Street 2 by spending some time with Wall Street traders and reports to GQ what he discovered:

On the Wall Street trading floors where he went to learn the banking ropes:

"I thought my life was pretty wild. I'm Richie Rich. I land in New York, secretly thinking I'm like the coolest guy in the world. I've been on the cover of GQ! But then I met these guys, and it's humbling. It's the most sex-drugs-and-rock-'n'-roll atmosphere that exists on the planet. I was hanging out with some wild human beings."

On getting past the stereotypes of Wall Street traders:

"It's easy to villainize these guys with the big paychecks," he says. "But they're not all bad. I'm a pretty left-wing character, and I come from whatever collar is lower than blue. But meeting these guys really opened my mind a lot. I've never seen people with more drive and determination in my life."

On his newfound hobby, trading:

"I trade in my boxers now. I'm up early for the markets. I'm real-time all day long." He loves the game and the thrill and the nerves of the market; and the market, it seems, loves him right back. As of the morning of our lunch, Shia says his online Schwab Active Trading account had grown to close to $450,000.

On being manipulated by Oliver Stone:

"We'd be on the street, and Oliver would just say, 'Go to that bar, get fucked-up, and come back.' I'd walk over, get smashed, and go back to work. He would really fuck with me when I was smashed. I get aggressive when I'm smashed, and he'd film that. He would just open you up completely, make you fucking naked-and then call, 'Action.'"

The Return of Gordon Gekko

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is the sequel to Wall Street and Vanity Fair has a clip as Annie Leibovitz photographs Michael Douglas in conjunction with the film.



Here's VF's attempt at decoding what the film will be about:

When Gekko comes out of prison, in the beginning of this movie, he essentially has to redefine himself,” says Stone. “He’s looking for that second chance.”

He gets it in a plot that pivots around Shia LaBeouf as Jacob “Jake” Moore, a hungry young hedge-funder who is dating Gekko’s estranged daughter, Winnie, played by Carey Mulligan. Jake believes that his boss, Bretton James, played by the omnipresent Josh Brolin, has somehow had a hand in the death of Jake’s mentor. Gekko agrees to aid the fresh-faced Jake in his plans for revenge.

Yes, the world has changed, but can Gordon Gekko? Douglas, for one, is playing things coy. “Gekko couldn’t manipulate the markets like he did back then,” he says. “It’s so big, so huge, that to be a minor player you need to be a major bank.” Or want to be. Hmm.

Uh, fact check: In Wall Street, Gekko didn't "manipulate markets". He was a takeover artist and inside trader.

Dubai Featured in Wall Street 2 !!!

Talk about life imitating art.

Wall Street 2 is set 20 years from the original movie and begins with Gordon Gekko's (Michael Douglas) release from federal prison.

Shia LaBoeuf also stars in the movie. His character Jacob Moore partners with Gekko to alert the financial community to the impending credit crisis.

New York, London and Dubai feature as locations.

Oh yeah, Donald Trump has a cameo appearance.

(Thanks2Nick)

Wall Street 2, The Script

Nikki Dinke's Deadline Hollywood Daily has the scoop:

I'm told that screenwriter Allan Loeb (21, Things We Lost In The Fire) will hand in his second draft of the long-awaited Wall Street 2 to 20th Century Fox later this week. (Although the great Stanley Weiser and his film school pal Oliver Stone were credited as writers of the original pic, Stephen Schiff was first to script the sequel.) I heard Loeb's first draft was "so great" that Stone didn't feel the need to touch it -- yet. But no one expects the director to keep hands off on the second draft since principal photography starts on August 10th. The film's release is now planned for February 2010. So here's the oh-so-secret plot of Wall Street 2 and who's playing what:

Michael Douglas, as everyone already knows, reprises his Best Actor Oscar-winning role as Gordon Gekko. But what hasn't been reported is that, as the movie begins, it's 21 years later and Mr. Greed Is Good has finished serving his prison sentence. He finds himself on the fringe of the financial community. ("Kinda like Jim Cramer or Mike Milken after their disgrace," an insider with the pic tells me.) Gekko is cautioning Wall Street that the "end is coming" -- but nobody is listening. So Gordon is obsessed with trying to repair his ruptured relationship with his daughter. That juicy actress role isn't cast yet. (But I'd love it if Oliver had the balls to bring back Sean Young as Mom in spite of their notorious falling out during the filming of the original.)

Enter Shia LaBeouf, who was reported in negotiations and I can now state is set to co-star. (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: one day every Hollywood movie will star this guy who turns 23 on June 11th.) Shia is a young Wall Street trader who's engaged to be married to Gekko's estranged daughter. Shia wants to be a major player, but his mentor unexpectedly kills himself, and Shia thinks a stock-shorting worldwide hedge fund manager is responsible. Shia seeks revenge on this villain, to be played by No Country For Old Men Supporting Actor Oscar-winner Javier Bardem. So Shia goes to Gordon saying, "I need your help", and makes a Faustian deal with Gekko who in return wants Shia's help getting back with the daughter. From then on, it's "antagonism" for everyone, my insider says.

I'm told Wall Street 2's story spans from June 2008 through the federal bailout. "We wanted to see some perspective in the same way that the original dealt with insider trading," a source explains to me. Meanwhile, a long list of Wall Street types are offering their help to make sure the script is accurate. Same thing happened with the original. Jeff "Mad Dog" Beck, then a star investment banker at ill-fated Drexel Burnham Lambert before he was exposed as a fraud, was one of the film's technical advisers and even had a cameo appearance. But Kenneth Lipper, investment banker and former deputy mayor of New York for Finance and Economic Development, did the real heavy lifting: he was hired as chief technical adviser and ensured the film was realistic. Weiser and Stone consulted dozens of Wall Street names for the film.