After hearing earlier today that The Wolf of Wall Street has set a record for most profanity used in a motion picture, the film is now making headlines again. In recent weeks, there has been a bit of controversy over one particular scene in the movie, a cameo from the real life Wolf himself, Jordan Belfort.
As a convicted criminal, many people were upset over the fact that he would be profiting from all the attention that his story is now receiving. Since he still hasn’t completed his restitution payments (he has $100m left), it’s understandable why some would frown upon seeing him making any royalties off of the movie.
It appears that this is not the case, however, as all of the money that Belfort has made off the film will be turned over to the government and go towards his restitution payment. Taking to Facebook to address his fans, he wrote the following:
As you can imagine, I am very busy right now, but I owe this post to all my loyal friends and fans who have supported me since the beginning: For the record, I am not turning over 50% of the profits of the books and the movie, which was what the government had wanted me to do. Instead, I insisted on turning over 100% of the profits of both books and the movie, which is to say, I am not making a single dime on any of this. This should amount to countless millions of dollars and hopefully be more than enough to pay back anyone who is still out there. I thought this was already public information, as I have already said it publicly numerous times, but apparently there is so much NOISE right now that it has gotten lost in the shuffle. So, again, for the record: I am not making any royalties off the film or the books, and I am totally content with that. My income comes from new life, which is far better than my old one. (Although I will admit the Quaaludes were kind of fun, at least in the beginning. Thankfully, they’re illegal! and impossible to find!)
So, there you have it, Mr. Belfort will not be pocketing any of the money that he makes from the film, or the books. Hopefully that will ease the minds of those who were hesitant to pay to go see The Wolf of Wall Street.
In other Wolf news, in order to keep up the hype and excitement that Martin Scorsese’s latest has been building in recent weeks, Paramount has released a whole batch of new promotional material today in the form of clips, featurettes and even an interesting roundtable discussion. There’s a lot to go through but if you’re looking forward to seeing the film, or even if you’ve already seen it, it’s all worth watching. You can check it out below.
Finally, it what will likely be the last piece of news regarding The Wolf of Wall Street today, THR reports that a reality show about Belfort’s life is being pitched. It’s still in the early stages and already people are protesting against it but this being Hollywood, I can easily see it being made in the near future.
Tell us, are you ready for a reality show about Belfort? Are you happy to see that he’s not making any money off of the film? Have you seen The Wolf of Wall Street yet? Let us know in the comments section and be sure to check out the new promotional material below.
