The crumbling financial markets may herald the end of staggering bonuses and swaggering bankers but Gordon Gekko, the ultimate Master of the Universe, is back.

Twentieth Century Fox are fast-tracking the production of a sequel to Wall Street, the 1987 paean to brash capitalism.

Greed is no longer good - even the modern-day Conservative Party says so - and the new film will see Gekko pitched into the current, unfamiliar world of unstable markets.

Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for the lead role in the Oliver Stone film, is monitoring the script for the new film with a view to reprising the infamous character.

In the original film, Gekko was a major Wall Street player, who turned over enormous sums of money by buying, asset-stripping and selling major companies.

Gekko came to symbolise the unchecked, rising power of bankers in the 1980s with a string of uncompromising lines. “Lunch is for wimps,” he barked.

The Gekko character was rivalled only by Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, when it came to explaining the passion and drive for the rise of Wall Street.

To a packed hall of nervous stockholders, Gekko said: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

The role was crucial in making Douglas’s career as a Hollywood actor, but he was left frustrated last month during a press conference when a reporter asked: “Are you saying, Gordon, that greed is not good?”

“I’m not saying that,” Douglas snapped. “And my name is not Gordon. He’s a character I played 20 years ago.”

It remains to be seen whether he will play the role once again in Money Never Sleeps which is currently in pre-production. Allan Loeb is writing the script for the film which will be produced by Wall Street producer Edward R. Pressman.

The plot will centre on Gekko as he struggles to readjust to the modern tumultuous economic climate after being released from the prison sentence imposed for his crimes in the 1980s.

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