Javier Bardem Joining Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2

Javier Bardem is joining the cast of Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2, according to Nikki Finke. He'll join Michael Douglas, who returns as Gordon Gekko, and Shia LaBeouf, who plays a young trader who is engaged to marry Gekko's daughter. If Finke's sources are correct, that will nearly solidify the primary lineup of this sequel with only Gekko's daughter left to cast.

Finke also claims to clarify a few details of the script. We knew that it took place a couple decades after Gekko went to jail at the end of Wall Street. She says it is, in fact, 21 years later, and Gekko isn't just on the sidelines of the financial industry; he sees the crash coming. He's focused on his estranged daughter, set to marry Shia's character. But Shia's mentor commits suicide, supposedly because of the machinations of evil hedge fund manager Javier Bardem. The script is said to cover the period from June of '08 to the instigation of the federal financial bailout.

Finke says that filming is set to begin on August 10th for a February 2010 release. Sure, Stone can turn the movie around that fast, but he's not exactly built for speed like, say, Werner Herzog. W. felt rushed because he pushed it out the door last year; hopefully the same rushed feeling won't apply to this film.

Wall Street 2 was once called Money Never Sleeps and should be called that (or something else) again, as the numbered sequel naming strategy seems all wrong for the movie (even taking into account the inherent irony of a story about financial malfeasance getting a name that suggests the most typical, obvious sequel pandering).