Monday, January 10, 2011

will there be Eric Watson: the movie?



It is a thought that occurred as we re-watched the skulduggery in Wall Street: money never sleeps.

The UK's Meat Trade News Daily in a headline last year about American investor furore over Watson's Triplecrown "special purpose acquisition" company in the US--his failed attempt to build an agricultural empire in Georgia, USA--stated that Watson "could not organise a drink in a brewery"; and in view of the string of high profile business failures Watson has been associated with since the 1990s, it's easy to dismiss him as an incompetent schemer.

But Watson is no fool.  In essence he is a gambler with other people's money.  If he's lucky, he pockets the profit; if he's not, he has ensured his creditors take the loss.  We see it in the case of his bankrupted Hanover financing operation, when it is revealed that although half owner with the less savvy Mark Hotchin, he was not an official director - the reason the Securities Commission did not ask the Court to seize Watson's NZ assets in December (although it's obvious to anyone he was a director in practice).

There would be plenty for a movie director to indulge: apart from the financial scheming and conniving, there is his playboy lifestyle with fast cars and exotic mansions in various parts of the world, lavish parties, a succession of glamorous sex partners (two more of them shown), socializing with the rich and famous and so on.  Maybe script-writers are already working on it? Of course there is the final chapter yet to occur when Watson gets his comeuppance, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.

3 comments:

carol said...

a great idea! who would play Eric Watson?

transpress nz said...

hmmm... Pierce Brosnan maybe? he may like to play a bad guy for a change. Watson's numerous sex partners could play themselves

Carl said...

I hear Jeffrey Epstein is looking for some work.