TOO REAL FOR WORDS : OK, There’s Money but How About the Sex and Violence?

There’s nothing like having the good fortune to have a movie project dealing with a subject that suddenly appears on the front pages of almost every newspaper throughout the world.

Warner Bros. has been developing “Liar’s Poker,” based on Michael Lewis’ 1989 best-selling account of his days as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers during the freewheeling ‘80s. Last week, in the latest scandal to hit Wall Street, the brokerage powerhouse was suspended for violating bidding rules at Treasury securities auctions. Salomon’s chief executive, John Gutfreund, and two other top officials resigned.

But will the latest news make the studio any more eager to greenlight the film? Jay Presson Allen (“Cabaret,” “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”), who’s currently writing the screenplay for producers Thom Mount (“Bull Durham,” “Tequila Sunrise”) and Norman Twain and director Barry Sonnenfeld (“The Addams Family”), thinks it might. “It doesn’t hurt to have the cover of the book on television several nights running,” says the writer, who’s vacationing in Italy. “The studio must sit up and take notice. Michael Lewis’ book is in almost every news report. The book will probably sell another 100,000 copies.”

Although her screenplay will have nothing to do with the current scandal, Allen says she’s been following the latest events at Salomon closely. “I was thinking to myself that if somebody said to do a sequel, this is pretty much what I would’ve written.”

Producer Twain is no stranger to newsworthy movies. “Lean on Me,” which he also produced for Warners several years back, was based on controversial school principal Joe Clark. A Time magazine profile of Clark hit the stands before the movie’s release, adding to the film’s appeal. “People say I’m lucky,” he says, referring to the latest Salomon Brothers controversy, “but you’ve still got to have a good movie.”

Warner Bros. declined to comment beyond saying they’re looking forward to the second draft of the script from screenwriter Allen.

Allen says she’s hoping the film will go into production sometime early next year in New York. “When all of this came down last week,” she says, “I imagined the two producers looking at each other and saying, ‘Sometimes there is a God.’ ”