1. Research | Wolf of Wall
Street
Director – Martin Scorsese
Writers – Terence Winter (screenplay) Jordan Belford (book)
Genres – Biography, Crime, Drama
Certificate 18
Release date – January 17, 2014 (United Kingdom)
Country of origin – United States
Languages – English, French
2. Storyline
• The film Wolf of Wall Street is based on a true story of a stock-broker from his his
rise to wealthy living to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal
government. The movie starts with a young Jordan Belford just hit a job in stocks.
After making a good amount of money he teams up with Donny Azoff and starts a
brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont. The company quickly goes from 20 members
of staff to 250 and their status in in the trading community and Wall Street grows
exponentially. As of this companies files their initial public offering through them.
As their status grows, so does the number of substances they abuse, this includes
cocaine and quaaludes. They draw attention like no other, throwing lavish parties
for their staff when they hit the jackpot in high trades. This leads to Belford
featuring on Forbes magazine. With the FBI into Belford’s trading schemes, he
devises new ways to cover his tracks. He ultimately produces a plan to stash their
cash in Switzerland. This leads to him getting caught up with the law and ends up
making a plea with the government “ratting” out certain people in result getting
18 months in prison.
Wolf of Wall Street
Swiss Bank scene
3. Filming locations
• Portofino, Genoa, Liguria, Italy (when Jordan and Naomi receive news of death of (Aunt Emma)
• Ardsley, New York, USA (old auto body shop)
• Shalimar Diner, New York, USA (Azoff approaches Belford for work)
• Rao’s Restaurant, New York, USA (meeting with private detective)
• White Plains, New York, USA (location)
• Chestnut Hill Drive, New York, USA, (Belford’s estate)
• Las Vegas, USA (location)
• Trump Tower, New York, USA (Belford caught with Naomi in limo)
• Harrison, New York, USA (Stratton Oakmont headquarters on Mamaroneck Ave, and Country Club)
• Manhattan, New York, USA (Belford’s downtown apartment)
• Bayville, New York, USA (Beach wedding)
• Geneva, Switzerland (view from swiss bank meeting room)
• Brooklyn, New York, USA (night shot of bridge)
• Sands Points, Long Islands, New York, USA (seaside party house)
• Bahamas (citied in film credits)
• North Cove Marina, Manhattan, New York, USA (yacht at the marina)
• Equitable Building, Manhattan, New York, USA (Belford’s one-day job)
• Sands point, Port Washington, New York, USA (Belford beach house)
4. Cast (in credits order)
• Leonardo DiCaprio – Jordan Belford
• Jonah Hill – Donnie Azoff
• Margot Robbie – Naomi Lapaglia
• Matthew McConaughey – Mark Hanna
• Kyle Chandler – Agent Patrick Denham
• Rob Reiner – Max Belford
• Jon Bernthal – Brad
• Jon Favreau – Manny Riskin
• Jean Dujardin – Jean Jacques Saurel
• Joanna Lumley – Aunt Emma
• Cristin Milioti - Teresa Petrillo
• Christine Ebersole - Leah Belfort
• Shea Whigham – Captain Ted Beecham
• Katrina Cas – Chantelle
• PJ. Byrne – Nicky Koskoff (”Rugrat”)
• Kenneth Choi – Chester Ming
• Jake Hoffman – Steve Madden
5. Trivia
• The actors snorted crushed B vitamins for scenes that involved cocaine. Jonah Hill (Donnie) claimed that he eventually became sick with bronchitis
after so much inhaling and had to be hospitalized.
• During the kissing scene between Leonardo DiCaprio (Jordan Belford) and Joanna Lumley (Aunt Emma), DiCaprio was so nervous that the scene
required a reported 27 takes to get it right.
• Jonah Hill (Donnie) had an audible lisp when he first put in the fake teeth to play Donnie. To get rid of this, he spent over two hours on the phone
calling random businesses and talking with them.
• The movie was banned in Malaysia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
• This movie broke the Guinness World Record for the most swearing in one movie: 681 expletives (equal to 3.81 swears per minute).
• Jordan Belford coached Leonardo DiCaprio on his behaviour, especially instructing him in the various ways he had reacted to the Quaaludes he abused
as well as his dope-induced confrontation with Danny Porush.
• Martin Scorsese said that there were actual real-life stockbrokers on the set, some of whom worked at the real Stratton Oakmont firm.
• Leonardo Di Caprio was paid $25 million for his role, a quarter of the film's budget, making him the highest paid star of the year.
• In an interview with Margot Robbie, she reveals that for the scene where Jordan and Naomi have sex for the first time in her apartment and her dog
tries to jump up and bite him, they had trouble getting the dog to jump, so they had to put dog food and chicken livers all over Leonardo DiCaprio's
feet and between his toes.
• Some of the those who fell victim to Belford’s fraud, were angered by what they considered to be the film’s glorification of both Belford’s debauched
life and the crimes that funded it. Especially since the film opened just a few years after the 2007-08 financial crisis, caused in large part by
unscrupulous Wall Street actions.
