Rules of Hollywood 101: If a movie makes money, it’s going to be emulated. If a movie gains awards prestige (and even manages to win a couple), it’s going to be emulated. Should a film, through some sort of alchemy and dark magic, occupy both sweet spots, it’s going to be emulated at a faster pace than either one on its own. Since Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street managed to do just that, it looks like Hollywood is going to bet it all on the Stock Market, and according to The Hollywood Reporter , they’re turning to one man to help them strike it rich.
Author Michael Lewis, the man behind such book-to-film hits as The Blind Side and Moneyball, has not one, but three films currently in production, and the most recent project to be announced is an adaptation of his latest book, Flash Boys. A short synopsis from THR describes the book’s plot as:
…a financial thriller about a group of Wall Street traders who band together to reform the market and fight the long-secret phenomenon known as high-frequency trading (HFT).
Going by the description alone, this project sounds like Sony and producer Scott Rudin (No Country For Old Men, The Social Network, and Moneyball ) are trying to go in the opposite direction of films like Wolf of Wall Street and Adam McKay’s latest option The Big Short (also a film being based off of source material penned by Lewis). The latter two titles are about the more negative sides of Wall Street, chronicling the steps taken between the 80’s to the 00’s to lead our economy into the greatest fiscal crisis since The Great Depression. Flash Boys, however, looks to focus on those who sought to change the system from the inside. With financial movies looking to be a hot ticket commodity, and Mr. Lewis’ books having a great track record of adaptation so far, studios would be insane not to fast track this project into production as soon as possible.
It wouldn't be surprising to see Liar’s Poker - a project Lewis has been working on since 2011 - gain a fair amount of traction to counter the movements made by the competition. Still, it’s more than a good feeling that Flash Boys will get off the ground faster than any of the other works in-development. It's time to brush up on your economics, folks, as it looks like moviegoers are going to become more invested in the stock market than ever before.
None of these projects have release or start dates just yet, so in the meantime let’s close the gap with the (obviously NSFW) clip that all of these movies are going to have to top in order to be as memorable as The Wolf of Wall Street was.
