now what's a good way to make money out
of the recession well write a book about
it and then turn it into a movie that's
just about what Australian businessman
Richard Haines has done everyone will
remember last year's pictures city
workers abandoning the Lehman Brothers
headquarters in Canary Wharf carrying
boxes filled with personal possessions
Richard Haines debut novel chameleon is
set at the time of the collapse of the
financial sector it's the story of a
trader who plans to exit the business
but is then forced to flee New York
after a final deal goes wrong when I was
adapting the screenplay we actually used
this current environment and I adapted
the screenplay to jun 2008 and it reads
very Lehman Brothers collapse so it's at
you know has an extremely contemporary
feel to write his thriller the former
hedge fund manager has used his own
insiders knowledge of twenty years to
show the greed and vanity that he saw in
the financial community mean financial
greedy times well it is interesting
because the screenplay is littered with
references to the fact that the bankers
have now become the bad guys which is
kind of funny notwithstanding the fact
that I think you know there's a public
perception that you know that was
overdue and that there has been this
extraordinary tirade of indulgence
that's been splattered across the
popular press which has rightfully so
bird the financial market so I think
I've used my understanding and
experiences of the financial markets to
weave it into the screenplay to make it
a i think a highly contemporary and
provocative thriller Richard Haines
novel has been well received by critics
and is even up for America's National
Book Award the film is still in
pre-production but with its high
contemporary feel there is the potential
for chameleon to be the next big wall
street movie