Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio reteam for The Wolf of Wall Street

Director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have committed to THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, reteaming the creative duo for the fifth time.  The film is based on the memoir of the same name by Jordan Belfort, chronicling his rise and fall as a Wall Street stock broker in the 80’s and 90’s.  The script for the film is written by Terrence Winter, who is the executive producer of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, another Scorsese-led project. 

Here’s the book synopsis for THE WOLF OF WALL STREET:

In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. Now, in this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent.

Reputedly the prototype for the film Boiler Room, Stratton Oakmont turned microcap investing into a wickedly lucrative game as Belfort’s hyped-up, coked-out brokers browbeat clients into stock buys that were guaranteed to earn obscene profits–for the house. But an insatiable appetite for debauchery, questionable tactics, and a fateful partnership with a breakout shoe designer named Steve Madden would land Belfort on both sides of the law and into a harrowing darkness all his own.

From the stormy relationship Belfort shared with his model-wife as they ran a madcap household that included two young children, a full-time staff of twenty-two, a pair of bodyguards, and hidden cameras everywhere—even as the SEC and FBI zeroed in on them—to the unbridled hedonism of his office life, here is the extraordinary story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at sixteen to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down…

This sounds like a great project for Scorsese/DiCaprio, much like a “Wall Street Goodfellas” and is rather timely given the US economic situation.  I predict some awesome scene chewing from DiCaprio and I can’t wait to see who joins the supporting cast. 

Stay tuned as more details emerge.