MGM is making a movie about the Wall Street-GameStop saga, based on a book by the author behind 'The Social Network'
- MGM has bought the film rights to a book proposal about the ongoing Wall Street-GameStop saga.
- Deadline names the author as Ben Mezrich, whose past work was adapted into "The Social Network."
- Mezrich said on Twitter that he was "born" to write the book, known as "The Antisocial Network."
MGM has bought the rights to a book proposal about the Wall Street-GameStop saga, which is still playing out.
Sources close to the matter told Deadline that the studio had acquired the rights to adapt a proposal for a book called "The Antisocial Network" by the author Ben Mezrich, whose work includes the inspiration for the hit 2010 film about the founding of Facebook, "The Social Network."
Mezrich confirmed the news on Twitter.
Mezrich has acted fast in the week since Reddit day traders banded together to send stocks such as GameStop to the moon, sending ripples through the financial system. The book hasn't been picked up by a publisher yet, according to Deadline, which said an auction was expected as soon as this month.
Mezrich and his representatives first marketed the idea of a movie based on the book at the end of last week. MGM acquired the rights by Friday night after a heated bidding war, Deadline's sources said.
Mezrich tweeted on Wednesday that "a ragtag band of redditers taking on Wall Street is a pretty good movie pitch, actually."
"The last scene in the movie is definitely @elonmusk sitting in the cockpit of a rocket ship tweeting 'Gamestonk!'" he added, also saying he was "born" to write a GameStop book.
Deadline reported that the film would be produced by Ryder Picture Company's Aaron Ryder, with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss as producers via Winklevoss Pictures.
Mezrich has written more than 20 books, including in-depth looks at some major business and financial scandals.
His book "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal," which explores how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook, was turned into "The Social Network" starring Jesse Eisenberg.
He also wrote "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions," which was turned into the 2008 movie "21."
The GameStop phenomenon could become one of the most memorable events in financial history. The saga involves a large group of Reddit day traders who banded together to dramatically increase the share price of GameStop and other highly shorted stocks while torching a few bearish hedge funds in the process and temporarily causing some brokerages to limit purchases in highly volatile stocks.
The short-seller squeeze managed to spread from stocks and cryptocurrencies to precious metals within a week, sparking a bubble. Calls to topple the establishment and reallocate wealth resembled the chaos of the populist 2011 movement, Occupy Wall Street.