What would have been if the original Wall Street screenwriter was still on it.

Two years ago, Wall Street screenwriter Stanley Weiser put together an initial take on a post Greed is Good world. And it looked a little bit like this:

“Here’s what happened. I was working on the script and the latter part was set in China and dealing with Chinese money and policing the Chinese. Gekko gets out of jail. It actually opened with Gekko getting out of jail and he’s standing by a curb and a limo pulls up and he’s next to a black kid, who’s a prisoner, and the black kid gets in the limo. The black kid is a rapper and the limo is for the rapper. So he is left standing there on the street alone and no one knows who he is anymore.

[The script was set] In the present. Basically, he had gone to Europe, like this world trader Marc Rich. He had been making deals in Europe and then he decided he wanted to go back to New York and get back in the action. So he does his jail time.

To make a long story short. I wrote the screenplay and Fox put it in turnaround because it was dated. Everything has changed and they’re starting with a page one rewrite that deals with the current situation in the markets. So it won’t be ready for a year and by that time the economy will have changed again so I wouldn’t be too hopeful. (RopeofSilicon)

But alas, the limo, the Chinese - it was not meant to be. According to Portfolio, Weiser’s treatment was “tabled when Stone had a falling out with Wall Street’s producer. Not long after, Schiff pitched Fox on an even more global approach. In his version, Gekko’s acolyte wins credibility with an oligarch named Oleg by traveling to London and buying him a Damien Hirst painting with $6 million of Gekko’s money.”

Screenwriter Stephen Schiff is no longer on the case; he was replaced by Alan Loeb. Loeb, who wrote the screenplay to the MIT students card-counting flick “21″, was once a licensed stockbroker, according to Variety. Hard to say, judging from his oeuvre, how the rewrite will shake up.

And yes we flatter ourselves, but given that the screenplay is being rewritten, perhaps suggestions from our Wall Street Sequel Prediction Contest will find their way into the movie? (Unfortunately, our call on China vs. India, at least according to Weiser’s treatment).

Gekko will still be back, though now Michael Douglas’ involvement is not absolute — he will reportedly make “his decision of whether to return based on the script” according to the Hollywood Reporter.