A Movie About the GameStop Stock Market Saga Is Already in the Works
Written by SOURCE on February 1, 2021
It seems that all we get out of Wall Street chaos is decent movies. The housing market collapse of 2008 changed little outside of Adam McKay’s Oscar shelf and it looks like this week’s big story will be heading in that same direction. The saga of retail investors pushing GameStop stock prices to the moon while putting the hurt on a few hedge funds is already being turned into a movie.
According to Deadline, MGM has already optioned Ben Mezrich’s planned book on the Wall Street Bets story, tentatively titled The Antisocial Network. The studio reportedly scored the rights to Mezrich’s book proposal after a competitive bidding war.
Mezrich is an old hand at crafting stories about the internet that become box-office and critical successes. He wrote the wildly popular history of Facebook, The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, a Tale Of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal. That book was eventually adapted into The Social Network.
Though it was less successful on both fronts, Mezrich also wrote Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas For Millions, which became the film 21. Mezrich has another similar history in the process of being adapted. His book Bitcoin Billionaires about Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss was picked up by the Winklevoss twins’ production company.
Mezrich has yet to sell the book to any publisher. MGM snapped up the rights while the author was still looking to sell it. Per Deadline, MGM inked a deal with Mezrich on Friday almost immediately after he began sending around a proposal.
