Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

melmagazine.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 81 posts

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#11

Post by desdiv »

>Since they can’t get back the stolen millions used to bankroll DiCaprio’s dreams, part of accomplishing justice in this case means the U.S. government now owns the rights and royalties of The Wolf of Wall Street.

Minor correction: U.S. government received a $60 million settlement from Red Granite Pictures, but not any rights to any film directly[0]. Obviously a big chunk of that $60 million derived from the royalties of The Wolf of Wall Street, but the government didn't get the rights and royalties directly.

The author might have confused it with the fact that the government was _attempting_ to seize the film rights during the court proceedings[1], but the final settlement didn't include these film rights.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-scandal-redgrani...

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/feds-look-seize-wo...

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#12

Post by quickthrower2 »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #8
mido22 wrote: post #2

Did they just misuse the word "irony"? Or am I just dumb and having trouble identifying which form of irony this is?

Every time someone uses the word "irony" on the internet someone comes along and makes this point. I suppose like stopped clocks these commenters must be right at least occasionally. This is not one of those occasions.

I blame Alanis Morrisette

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#13

Post by philpem »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #12
SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time someone uses the word "irony" on the internet someone comes along and makes this point. I suppose like stopped clocks these commenters must be right at least occasionally. This is not one of those occasions.

I blame Alanis Morrisette

If you think about it, it's a pretty good musical trolling exercise.

A song about irony which doesn't contain a single instance of irony.

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#14

Post by 2038AD »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #9
Yajirobe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Irony is when the outcome of a state of affairs is opposite the expected one. The movie being about financial scams implies nothing about the making of the movie. Now, if the Wolf of Wall Street criticized (or made fun of) financial scam funded movies, that would be ironic.

No, that would be hypocritical.

It would be both

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#15

Post by CloudNetworking »

Yajirobe wrote: post #7
ccjnsn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A film about financial scams was funded in part by a financial scam. Is this not ironic?

No. Irony is when the outcome of a state of affairs is opposite the expected one. The movie being about financial scams implies nothing about the making of the movie. Now, if the Wolf of Wall Street criticized (or made fun of) financial scam funded movies, that would be ironic.

> Irony is when the outcome of a state of affairs is opposite the expected one.

Like making a movie about financial scams, which one would expect it would be just "a movie about financial scams" and not "a financial scam", but it turns out it was also "a financial scam"?

:-)

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#16

Post by zhte415 »

Directly related book recommendation: Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, published 2018.

They book follows the founders of 1MDB, the quasi Malaysia soverign wealth fund wbhose investments included the founding of Red Granite the producers of Wolf of Wall Street, from pre-1MDB days through to it's demise. Quite quick and easy, repeats itself a bit and imho falls apart/seems rushed at the end, but a fascinating account of greed, corruption, and how easy it seems. Well worth a movie adaptation itself!

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#18

Post by breakingcups »

philpem wrote: post #13
quickthrower2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I blame Alanis Morrisette

If you think about it, it's a pretty good musical trolling exercise. A song about irony which doesn't contain a single instance of irony.

Now, isn't that ironic?

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#19

Post by giancarlostoro »

runn1ng wrote: post #17

allegedly

After having watched White Collar I usually say that about most accusations. We have all seen shows where an innocent person looks guilty. We somehow went from innocent until proven guilty to ridiculed and reviled until dead (and even that doesnt end it) regardless of the verdict or the reality.

Re: ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ film was also a real-life scam

#20

Post by arethuza »

zhte415 wrote: post #16

Directly related book recommendation: Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, published 2018. They book follows the founders of 1MDB, the quasi Malaysia soverign wealth fund wbhose investments included the founding of Red Granite the producers of Wolf of Wall Street, from pre-1MDB days through to it's demise. Quite quick and easy, repeats itself a bit and imho falls apart/seems rushed at the end, but a f…

.
Post reply on HN