If you ask the folks on r/WallStreetBets, the saga of taking GameStop to the moon in order to stick it to hedge funds shorting the company’s stock isn’t nearly over. But even in the midst of this social media-based financial smack down, Hollywood is already seeing its own dollar signs. The latest studio seeking to adapt the real-life story is HBO, which is developing a project with Billions co-creator and financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, former HBO Films head Len Amato, and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse.
The Hollywood Reporter has it that the cable network is currently in search of a writer to pen the film. The outlet also continually refers to the production as a “project,” shying away from specifying if it might be a movie, TV show, or limited series.
Any of those forms might work for the story, which centers on Reddit day traders who banded together to pull one over on the stock market. The social media users pushed up the price of stocks like GameStop, AMC Theaters, and BlackBerry in an attempt to force hedge funds to lose their shorting bets. In the process, they sent Wall Street into a tizzy of confusion over regular people beating them at their own game.
HBO’s project is one of at least three productions already in the works while the financial world is still dealing with the fallout from the digital uprising. Netflix has Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) penning a movie in which Noah Centineo is set to star. Meanwhile, MGM bought the rights to an upcoming book by Ben Mezrich, who previously had one of his works adapted into The Social Network. And the life rights to r/WallStreetBets founder Jamie Rogozinski have been purchased by Brett Ratner’s RatPac Entertainment.
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Sorkin, who works as a financial journalist for CNBC and The New York Times, has already penned articles about the GameStop story, and is clearly deeply knowledgeable about the situation. His book about the 2008 financial crisis, Too Big to Fail, was developed into a 2011 HBO movie which he also co-produced. His show Billions is entering its sixth season on Showtime.
