The first trailer for The Big Short has dropped online, and if the premise alone isn’t enough to pique your interest, then how about the dynamite cast? Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, and Steve Carell all star in this movie about how big banks screwed the economy. Watch the footage below.
The Big Short trailer reveals the faces of those considered outsiders who saw the impending collapse of the economy. When no one, including the big banks, media, and government, refused to see it, these gentlemen had the idea to bet against them. This action, called "The Big Short," takes them into the dark underbelly of the modern banking world.
The film is based on the non-fiction book by author and financial journalist Michael Lewis. This is the same guy who wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which was turned into a feature film starring Pitt; The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, which was also turned into a feature film starring Sandra Bullock; and Liar’s Poker, from which Lewis wrote a script, so it will be an upcoming feature film adaptation at Warner Bros. Hollywood clearly finds this man to be a treasure trove of source material, and The Big Short is the latest.
Adam McKay — the man behind Anchorman, Anchorman 2, and Step Brothers — helms The Big Short from a screenplay he co-wrote with Charles Randolph (The Interpreter, Love & Other Drugs). Though the trailer throws a lot at you in a few minutes, the cast is the highlight. Ignoring that Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day movie, Carell’s last eye-catcher was as the mentally tortured John du Pont in the Oscar-nominated Foxcatcher. Ignoring Exodus: Gods and Kings, Bale’s was as the balding Irving Rosenfeld in the Oscar-winning American Hustle. Gosling’s was in Only God Forgives, and Pitts’ was in Fury. These four gents also have more juicy roles down the pipeline, but to have them together is a rare opportunity indeed.
But even if you ignore all of that, The Big Short has another thing working for it. It’s a story about, as Carell’s character says in the trailer, how "the American people are getting screwed by the big banks." In a political climate where lower- and middle-class Americans are becoming more and more sick of the increasing gap between them and the one-percenters, it’s a film that sees outsiders, in a way, fighting the system.
The cast also features Melissa Leo (London Has Fallen), Hamish Linklater (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn), John Magaro (Orange is the New Black), Rafe Spall (Prometheus), Jeremy Strong (Selma), Marisa Tomei (the upcoming Spider-Man), and Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story). The Big Short is now scheduled to debut at AFI Fest presented by Audi on November 12, get a limited release on December 11, and go wide on December 23.
