For those of you who haven’t been following why GameStop has been part of the news cycle lately, it has nothing to do with the buying and selling of video games. To put it as simply possible, with hedge funds having bet against companies like GameStop and AMC, numerous day traders banded together online (particularly on Reddit) to buy said stocks, resulting in GameStop shares increasing 135% in just one day and delivering major consequences for the aforementioned hedge funds. It’s a complicated subject that was already set to be explored in one movie, but now Netflix is getting in on the GameStop stocks action, and Noah Centineo is involved.
According to Deadline, Netflix is working on a yet-to-be-titled GameStop movie that The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal is in negotiations to pen. Noah Centineo, who’s a big player in the Netflix realm in recent years thanks to the To All the Boys movies, Sierra Burgess Is a Loser and The Perfect Date, is said to play a “major role” in this project, while Scott Galloway, who co-hosts the tech, politics and business news-focused Pivot podcast, will consult on the script.
This news follows just a day after it was announced that MGM acquired the film rights to author Ben Mezrich’s book proposal The Antisocial Network. Mezrich also wrote the book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal, which was later adapted into The Social Network. Given how much critical acclaim and accolades David Fincher’s 2010 movie earned, it makes sense why MGM wanted to snag the rights to Mezrich’s forthcoming story, but now the studio will have to contend with Netflix as competition on the same subject.
Netflix hasn’t officially commented on its GameStop project, but Deadline’s write-up also mentioned that the goal is for the Mark Boal-penned narrative to “shine a light” on how social media users have “leveled the playing field and allowed the masses to challenge status quo gatekeepers, for good and bad.” Both this project and MGM’s movie are reportedly also expected to be modeled after 2015’s The Big Short, which delved into how the U.S. housing bubble trigger the financial crisis that lasted from 2007 to 2008.
While it’s possible that both Netflix and MGM’s respective GameStop projects could see the light of day, the former streaming platform is apparently looking to be the first one to cross the finish line. Mark Boal certainly has experience with quick turnarounds, as a decade ago, he and director Kathryn Bigelow were working on a movie about the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, which was among the early attempts to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden post-9/11. However, once it was announced in May 2011 that bin Laden was killed, they scrapped that project and started a new one from scratch, which became the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty. Boal’s other notable credits include Detroit and Triple Frontier.
As for Noah Centineo, it’s unclear who he would play in Netflix’s GameStop movie, although I can’t help wondering if the streaming service has him in mind for Keith Gill, the financial advisor and YouTuber known Roaring Kitty who helped rally people online to but GameStop shares. Granted, Gill is 34 and Centineo turns 25 in May, but there’s enough wiggle room for the casting to work. In any case, this marks yet another way for Centineo to keep a firm foothold on the Netflix front. The actor is also still attached to star as He-Man in the Masters of the Universe reboot, as well as play Atom Smasher in Black Adam.
Obviously Netflix’s GameStop movie is in the earliest stages of development, so keep your eyes locked on CinemaBlend for more updates. If you’re curious about what movies are supposed to come out in theaters this year, you can find that information in our 2021 release schedule.
