MGM Lands Rights To Ben Mezrich’s Book Proposal ‘The Antisocial Network’; Would Chronicle Recent Wall Street-GameStop Chaos – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Following one of the craziest weeks in Wall Street history, Hollywood already has its sights set on the wild story with a familiar face looking to tell it. Sources tell Deadline that following a competitive situation, MGM has acquired the book proposal The Antisocial Network from New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich, which tells one of the biggest news stories of the year, about a ragtag group of amateur investors, gamers, and internet trolls who brought Wall Street to its knees. Even though the story is barely a week old, insiders say Mezrich and his reps took the proposal on the market at the end of the week and by Friday night MGM had moved fast to acquire the rights.

The project brings MGM’s Michael DeLuca back together with Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, a Tale Of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which was adapted into the Academy Award-winning The Social Network that DeLuca produced.

This latest story seems right up Mezrich’s alley and started when a group of rag-tag investors from the Reddit page called Wall Street Bets banded together to put the squeeze on at least two hedge funds that had bet that Gamestop shares would fall. the hedge funds had been shorting GameStop’s shares, betting that its stock was doomed to further decline, these amateur investors led by the Reddit page began pushing the other way, buying shares and stock options. That caused GameStop’s market value to increase rise over 1,700% since December. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, the market value rose over $10 billion.

The fun didn’t stop there as more newcomers to the stock game began looking at other stocks deemed obsolete or super low like Nokia and AMC to try and do the same resulting a major controversy when the trading app RobinHood began putting restrictions on certain stocks.

Its unknown where Mezrich’s story starts and stops but its certainly a story as timely as you can get and clearly something Hollywood was happy to sink its teeth in so soon.

Academy Award-nominee Aaron Ryder of Ryder Picture Company (RPC), who recently signed a first look film deal with MGM, will produce. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss will executive produce via their Winklevoss Pictures production banner. The Project is known to be a priority for MGM’s DeLuca and Pamela Abdy. Johnny Pariseau will oversee for the studio. The book is expected to go to out to publishers for auction in February.

Mezrich has written more than 20 books, with well over six million copies sold. His books including Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Sho Took Vegas For Millions , which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted for the screen with the film 21. The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, a Tale Of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal spent eighteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and appeared on hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries. Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin share a Scripter Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film adaptation The Social Network. Mezrich is the only non-fiction author to have two adaptations open #1 at the box office. His book Bitcoin Billionaires was an international bestseller and is being made into a motion picture, as is The Midnight Ride, a novella that was originally published in serialized form by The Boston Globe and will be released by Grand Central in January 2022. The feature rights have been acquired by Amblin Partners.

Academy Award-nominee Ryder is a prolific producer, with projects including Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, starring Amy Adams; Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence starring Hugh Jackman (now in post-production for Warner Bros.); the critically acclaimed Pieces of a Woman starring Vanessa Kirby for Netflix, The Good House for Amblin Pictures, and Greyhound starring Tom Hanks for Apple. He is currently in post on The Map of Tiny Perfect Things for Amazon Studios and is currently in production in Montreal on Damian Szifron’s Misanthrope starring Shailene Woodley, which he is producing for FilmNation Entertainment.  As one of the founding members of FilmNation, Ryder contributed greatly to the company’s creative direction and enduring success, producing over a dozen films including: Arrival; Jeff Nichols’ Mud; and The Founder, directed by John Lee Hancock and starring Michael Keaton. Ryder’s collaboration with Christopher Nolan runs deep, having produced The Prestige starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale and executive producing Memento starring Guy Pearce, which was nominated for two Academy Awards.

CAA reps Mezrich’s book.