Legendary Hollywood producer Irwin Winkler just gave us yet another gift.
The man behind movies like Rocky, Goodfellas and Raging Bull has written a tell-all memoir full of tales from his decades in the biz called Life in Movies: Stories from 50 Years in Hollywood, Esquire reported. Winkler gave the magazine an excerpt from the book; specifically from behind the scenes of the making of The Wolf of Wall Street and the “shady dealings that led to its financing.”
“The Wolf of Wall Street was financed not by a Hollywood studio, rich real estate mogul, or oil tycoon, but by a Malaysian investment fund. It was one more strange way to finance a movie,” Winkler writes in the excerpt. ” I questioned Aziz [the stepson of Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak] and his partner, Joey McFarland, about where the financing was coming from and was told it was from Abu Dhabi government officials whose names they (or I) couldn’t pronounce, but since Aziz was the prime minister’s stepson, all seemed legitimate.”
Sure.
The producer also revealed a little filming tidbit involving Donald Trump.
“While shooting outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue one night, we were greeted by the future president, who hinted that he wouldn’t mind a part in The Wolf of Wall Street, but it couldn’t be a walk-on,” Winkler writes. “He also remembered calling me almost thirty years earlier, wanting me to shoot Rocky IV at his Atlantic City hotel, and said I’d made a big mistake by turning him down, because he would have made a ‘great deal.’”
Editor’s Note: RealClearLife, a news and lifestyle publisher, is now a part of InsideHook. Together, we’ll be covering current events, pop culture, sports, travel, health and the world.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
