Oliver Stone is discovering one of the many joys of capitalism: without it, he would never be able to make such flashy, well-produced films bashing capitalism!
Stone's latest film, "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", may have replaced Charlie Sheen, star of the original, with a younger Shia LaBeouf, but it's still as hypocritically anti-capitalist as the original.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Money Never Sleeps" would not have been able to muster a sufficient budget without massive product placement campaigns. The film benefitted "enormously" from the advertising technique, Stone admitted (h/t Big Hollywood headlines).
THR reported:
Oliver Stone said Wednesday that his "Wall Street" sequel benefited "enormously" from product placement, which helped expand a tight budget without compromising the integrity of the film.
The 20th Century Fox release, budgeted at about $60 million, took the top spot at the North American box office last weekend with a good-but-not-great opening of $19 million.
"Fox is known as a tight studio," he said. "We needed help, and we took it where we could without, I think, prostituting the movie.
"No big, big cash, no Gillette shaving cream," he added. "There was no scene that we did out of the way specifically to accommodate."
All the sponsor support "helped us enormously," he said. Corporate partners included Dunkin' Donuts, Ducati, tech firms, and hedge fund firm SkyBridge. Starbucks wanted to come on board, but couldn't because there was already a relationship with Dunkin' Donuts.
Our friends at Reason.tv put together this handy video that fits nicely with Stone's ironic admission:
