Of course the GameStop movie is already happening
It was never a question of if, but Hollywood has still moved at startling velocity to get the Reddit Wall Street debacle adapted for the big screen. Just one week after millions of investors teamed up through r/WallStreetBets to drive up the price and clash with short-sellers of GameStop, AMC, and other struggling stocks, MGM has acquired the rights to make it a motion picture.
According to Deadline, the studio has bought up the rights to The Antisocial Network, a book proposal that hasn’t even been auctioned to publishers yet. This may sound like a risky gamble, given the immediate unknowns around sourcing and digestibility, but the author has some pedigree with this sort of thing. Ben Mezrich, who wrote books that would become source material for 21 and The Social Network (The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, respectively) has a winning track record of turning tales of internet and financial schemes into box office success.
Deadline also notes that the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, will executive produce under their Winklevoss Pictures production company. The twins are also co-producing Mezrich’s bestseller Bitcoin Billionaires, about how they emerged from an array of Facebook lawsuits to instead make their billions in Bitcoin. As far as source-writer relationships go, Mezrich certainly has his hands on a cozy, lucrative pairing.
This feels exceedingly fast, given the GameStop stock was still enjoying wild swings as recently as Monday morning, but it isn’t the first time an unpublished Mezrich book made its way to screenplay adaptation. Aaron Sorkin claims he only needed an unfinished draft of The Accidental Billionaires to say yes to penning The Social Network, so maybe this one could have a similarly fast turnaround time.
Although no one’s attached beyond the Winklevoss twins and Oscar-nominated producer Aaron Ryder, it’s easy to imagine this one drawing heavy interest on both sides of the camera. Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman already seems to be over it, so you can likely rule him out. But please, for the love of god, let’s keep Adam McKay far away from this thing and let him get back to screwball comedies that aren't trying so hard.