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After one of the craziest weeks in Wall Street history, the GameStop stock market saga is about to hit Hollywood.
An onslaught of new content based on the stock controversy has been announced in the last couple of days. A TV series, movies, and a book have all been announced.
The story, of course, is about Redditors — gamers, internet trolls, and amateur investors — who banded together to put the squeeze on hedge funds that were shorting GameStop stock and betting shares would continue to decline.
Redditors bought out vast quantities of stock, causing hedge funds to lose billions. It also boosted GameStop’s value, with the company’s market value increasing by a whopping $10 billion.
It’s not even over yet. As the story of the r/WallStreetBets continues to write itself every day, it’s hard to know what story they might end up telling. In any case, a group of Reddit users beating hedge funds at their own game is a real-life underdog story. And we all know that underdog stories resonate well with audiences.
New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich wants to explore the GameStop/Wall Street Bets chaos, with a new book titled The Antisocial Network. It will tell the story of the ragtag group of amateur investors, gamers, and internet trolls who managed to rock Wall Street.
Mere days after Mezrich and his reps took the proposal on the market, MGM moved to acquire the rights with plans to adapt the book for film.
This new project will reunite Mezrich with MGM’s Michael De Luca. The two previously worked together on the Academy Award-winning The Social Network. It was produced by De Luca and adapted from Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.
There’s no indication where Mezrich’s book (or the film adaptation) will begin and end.
Streaming giant Netflix is ready to sink their teeth into the r/WallStreetBets story, too. Deadline reports that Netflix is in talks to pick up Mark Boal to write the movie. Boal is an Oscar winning screenwriter, responsible for movies such as Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker.
Noah Centineo is already attached to the project. The To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before star will play a major role. Though, it’s unclear what role that will be just yet. After all, the story isn’t done unfolding in real life yet.
Netflix also tapped NYU professor and activist/journalist Scott Galloway to serve as a consultant on the project. Galloway is an expert on tech issues who teams up on the popular Pivot podcast, and has been tweeting about the GameStop stock saga.
There’s a third GameStop stocks project that was announced over the last couple of days.
A relatively new independent production company, Pinky Promise, announced a limited TV series chronicling the GameStop saga. Titled To the Moon, this is the first TV series set to focus on the story.
To the Moon is set to follow two roommates laid off from their jobs at GameStop and AMC. They use their stimulus checks to dip into the world of day trading.
Pinky Promise is fast-tracking the development, gunning to have the first TV series. So far, the production company has already met with several top members of r/WallStreetBets, hedge funds, and other trading insiders.
“We’re working with long-time, active members of the r/WallStreetBets reddit to make sure we tell this story correctly,” said Pinky Promise co-founders Jessamine Burgum and Matthew Cooper. “This is a movement that could very well dictate the future of Wall Street and individuals’ beliefs that they can stand up to Goliath — getting this right is our top priority.”
Noam Tomaschoff has been tapped to write the series. Tomaschoff just made his directorial debut with Tankhouse, starring Christopher Lloyd and Richard Kind.
“I’ve worked in finance and witnessed these hedge funds gleefully profiting off the backs of struggling companies and ordinary people without a second thought,” said Tomaschoff. “This diverse and dynamic people’s movement to hit big money where it hurts is unprecedented and inspiring to anyone who dreams of changing the world.”
