This post is part of a feature in which we wonder whatever happened to some notorious financial felons. See all 17.

Ah, for the simple days of the 1980s. Way back then, the crimes of greedy traders were obvious and unambiguous, and the crooks had the decency to look the part. Few played the role of the greedy financier as well as Ivan Boesky, who went all the way from immigrant's son to millionaire investor to disgraced jailbird. I only wish our current financial crooks played their parts as well.

Ivan Frederick Boesky rose to fame and fortune taking huge positions in companies that were soon to be taken over. He was quite successful during the merger mania that drove the 1980s boom market, and by 1986 he was worth over $200 million, which was real money back before hedge funds took over the world. The only problem was that he was trading on inside information, which while enormously profitable has the distinct disadvantage of being completely illegal.

Boesky was not subtle in his approach, often buying tens of thousands of shares in a company at a premium just days before the company announced a takeover. The share price would jump and Boesky would quickly cash out. The typically somnambulant SEC eventually took notice, and Boesky was caught red-handed in 1986 and charged with stock manipulation and insider trading. He paid a fine of $100 million and spent nearly two years in the (minimum security) slammer. He also sang like a bird to the SEC, providing enough information about crooked dealings on Wall Street to almost single-handedly bring the 1980s boom to an end.

Okay, here is an absolutely brilliant idea. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. According to this blurb at The Hollywood Reporter, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) is interested in doing a sequel to the classic 1987 film Wall Street.

Some of you younger investors out there might not be familiar with the movie, but perhaps you're familiar with the now-famous quote "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." It was uttered by the loathsome Gordon Gekko, whose alliterative name almost oozes corporate scandal and villainy. That character was played by Michael Douglas. Wall Street was directed by Oliver Stone and it portrayed the evil side of capitalism, replete with insider trading and share-price manipulation. It's considered a classic, iconic fictional snapshot of the current zeitgeist at the time: the only thing that mattered was upward mobility and accumulation of as much net worth as conceivable without consideration for the little guy. It came out around the time of the '87 market crash, so it had that going for it.

This is why News Corp. needs to fast-track the project. According to this source from May of last year, a sequel to Wall Street was already in the works. Obviously, the fact that The Hollywood Reporter mentioned the project this week means that execs at Fox feel that the timing for a sequel is approaching an optimal point. In fact, they really should try to get it out into the marketplace as quickly as they can, and hopefully with Michael Douglas reprising his role as Gekko (Douglas' return is not set in stone at this point). Not only could the movie gross a decent amount at the box office, but think of the synergy potential here.

News Corp. is fighting a battle with General Electric's (NYSE: GE) CNBC as we speak. The Fox Business Channel wants to take away as many viewers as possible from the stock-market network. Problem is, CNBC is a very powerful brand in its arena. Of course, that doesn't deter the pit bulls at Fox. If you had to describe the media company with only one word, that word would, by necessity, be a hyphenate: ultra-competitive. In fact, Fox Business Channel recently slammed BloggingStocks' own Jim Cramer in a recent promo (see a piece on this subject by Zac Bissonnette).

All the drama on Wall Street these days -- from the credit crunch to the housing slump, everything from runs on the bank to rogue traders -- had the Hollywood Reporter wondering recently why Hollywood isn't cashing in on the fun. Given how well most of the serious Iraq War/War on Terror movies have done lately, perhaps moviemakers will be searching for greener pastures. Heck, Gordon Gekko is scheduled to make a reappearance next year in a Wall Street sequel tentatively called Money Never Sleeps.

Until then, with a little help from the Internet Movie Database, here is a list of some of Hollywood's best takes on Wall Street so far.

• American Psycho (2000). Christian Bale stars as a soulless investment banker with a taste for violence and kinky sex. Based on the bestselling book by Bret Easton Ellis.
• The Bank (2001). This award-winning Australian film is set in a corrupt corporate bank, and like Pi features a maverick mathematician who may have found a way to accurately predict stock market fluctuations. Stars Anthony LaPaglia.
• Barbarians at the Gate (1993). This Emmy-winning made-for-television movie is based on the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in the 1980s. James Garner won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the company's CEO.
• Boiler Room (2000). A college dropout joins a small brokerage house and discovers that his new career isn't all it's cracked up to be. This film has been compared to both Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross. Stars Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck.

This post is part of our Money Face-Offs feature. Let us know who you think comes out ahead in this head-to-head match-up, and check out our other Money Face-Off posts.

In this corner, hailing from Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, is 91-year old billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, one-time amateur boxer know as "Rifle Right Kerkorian." And in the other corner, hailing from New York, is 71-year-old corporate raider and activist private equity investor, Carl Icahn, who is never afraid to go toe to toe with an opponent.

Let's get ready to rumble.

Round One begins: Kerkorian drops out of school and becomes a pilot. He gets his start in business buying surplus planes after World War II, as well as Las Vegas properties, becoming the landlord of Caesar's Palace. Icahn, meanwhile, establishes his reputation as a corporate raider during his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985, and becomes one of the inspirations for the character of Gordon "Greed Is Good" Gekko, the antagonist of the 1987 film Wall Street.

Amid growing concern about market manipulation by investors (hedge funds are most often cited), investors and businesses must now focus on proxy season and ways to prevent the effects of market manipulation from carrying over there. There is concern that funds will be able to sway elections by voting shares they don't own, or have to hedge to minimize their economic stake in the outcome.

For example, if a fund owned 100,000 shares of a company but had purchased put options, the actual exposure might be far less than the 100,000 shares would indicate. Yet they would still be able to vote those shares. This is of tremendous concern as a corporate governance issue, because it could be that many corporations will now be run by two groups: management with little stake in the company, and hedge funds with little stake in the company.

Gordon Gekko would not be pleased.

Anyone who reads my posts on BloggingStocks knows that I have lot of respect and admiration for that much-maligned group of people known as activist hedge fund mangers. The other day, I discussed a recent study that indicates that these investors are good for small shareholders. This week's issue of Barron's features an interesting piece on Ralph Whitworth and his fund Relational Investors, who played a key role in the ousting of Robert Nardelli from the Home Depot Co. (NYSE:HD). (On a side note, it may not have been quite as tough as it sounds. A $210 million severance package? Boy, they sure showed Nardelli who's boss). The piece also featured a prescient quote from Adam Smith, the 18th century philosopher/economist best known for writing The Wealth of Nations:

"The trade of a joint stock company is always managed by a court of directors...It cannot well be expected that they would watch over it with same anxious vigilance with which the the partners in a private copartnery frequently watch over their own...Negligence and waste, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company."