Los Angeles - Oliver Stone is to remake his 1987 hit Wall Street and has lined up Michael Douglas to reprise his Oscar winning role as corrupt financier Gordon Gecko, 20th Century Fox has announced.

According to the announcement the sequel will unfold against the background of the recent economic meltdown in which a young Wall Street trader confronts the rampant greed and corruption that led to the meltdown.

The role Gekko's apprentice, which was filled by Charlie Sheen in the original, is set to go to Shia LaBeouf.

The original film ended with Gecko in jail, but that didn't stop him from becoming a hero for many Wall Street characters, who have a penchant for citing his most famous quote: "Greed is good."

That has led screenwriter Stanley Weiser to express regret about the line. "I wish I could go back and rewrite the greed line to this: 'Greed is good. But I've never seen a Brinks truck pull up to a cemetery'," he said last year. (dpa)