9. Terrance Winter - The Wolf of Wall Street
If you haven't seen the newly released trailer for the forthcoming Scorsese-DiCaprio collaboration (their fifth thus far), stop reading this article right now and go watch it... Wait, wait, wait, you still there, on second thought, finish reading my article first, then go check it out. Needless to say, I'm pretty pumped over the trailer. In fact, the last time a trailer got this much of a rise out of me was the trailer for David Fincher's The Social Network set to the Scala and Kolancy Brothers' cover of Radiohead's most famous single, "Creep" (and that film only turned out to be one of the best contemporary pieces of cinema in the last decade). Set to the tune "Black Skinhead", one of the newest songs off of Kanye West's most recent album, if the trailer is any indication of the final tone of the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street promises to be a very poignant dark comedy. The film is based on the autobiography of the same name by Jordan Belfort, a ridiculously affluent stockbroker in the mid-1990's who procured his fortune through means that weren't exactly on the up-and-up. Belfort's real life story already served as inspiration for the not exceptional, although underrated, Boiler Room, but The Wolf of Wall Street looks to be on a whole different level. What struck me most about the film from the trailer was how audacious it is. Akin to the interesting mix of comedy and drama that appeared in his gangster classics Goodfellas and Casino, the prevalent theme of the trailer seemed to be the gaucheness and garishness of the opulent lifestyle, particularly when achieved through illicit means. When I first heard DiCaprio and Scorsese were taking on this film, I have to admit to be slightly disappointed. The story sounded as if it would be a mildly dry morality tale and it also sounded similar to some of the material the two have covered in the past, but after watching the film's trailer, my opinion on the film has done a complete 180. Maybe it was the involvement of former The Sopranos writer and creator and current show runner of Boardwalk Empire (two excellent television shows), Terrence Winter, who wrote the film script, but whoever is responsible, this looks to be one hell of a film, and an almost assured nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay.