Variety is reporting that Frank Langella has signed on to Oliver Stone’s Wall Street sequel, Money Never Sleeps. He’ll be playing an older broker in the movie, which is also due to star Shia Labeouf and Michael Douglas, who’ll revisit his classic role of Gordon Gekko.
Frost/Nixon star Langella is due to play Lewis Zabel, an old-time broker who mentors LaBeouf’s character, a young Wall Street broker. The mentor’s fate plays a major part in the film’s plot.
The same report suggests that Josh Brolin is also circling a role in the movie, although it doesn’t say what one. Either way Stone will have to line up his cast pretty quick, as 20th Century Fox is still planning to release the movie at the beginning of next year. The rushed schedule is due to the movie being based around the credit crunch and last year’s financial meltdown, and so they want to get it out as soon as possible.
It’s a similar approach to the one used to get Stone’s George Bush biopic, W, in cinemas before the end of his presidency. In that case it didn’t work out to well as the movie looked rushed and lightweight. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again this time around.