Today is a happy day, because Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are back in business for the fifth time. Vulture reports that they are re-teaming for The Wolf of Wall Street, a tale of greed and excess in the free-spending days of the 1980s. The project had been set up at Warner Bros. where DiCaprio’s Appian Way company is set up. At one point, Ridley Scott was set to reunite with his Body of Lies star for the film; that was after it appeared that Scorsese wouldn’t be able to fit it into his busy schedule.
However, the project has since left the studio and Scott departed, leaving an opening for Scorsese to jump back in. According to the source, DiCaprio’s manager Rick Yorn has secured private funding for the film and it will be made independently, which is an interesting prospect since neither DiCaprio nor Scorsese has made a true “indie” in sometime (let’s face it, they don’t need to. What studio wouldn’t want to be in business with them?)
Scorsese’s Boardwalk Empire collaborator Terrence Winter has penned a screenplay based on Jordan Belfort’s 1990 novel of the same name and DiCaprio will play the multi-millionaire twentysomething who goes from profitable playboy in the days of Reaganomics to federal-convict thirtysomething banned from the securities business for life in 1994. My biggest concern about the film is it being dated. Oliver Stone’s iconic 1987 film summed up the period quite well and its sequel, last year’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, failed to ignite a national discussion like the original did 24 years ago. I’m not so sure America will be interested in following a money-grubbing sex addict at a time when its citizens are losing their homes and pride.
Source: Vulture
