Director Craig Gillespie has set a star-studded cast for his film about the madness surrounding the GameStop stock squeeze called “Dumb Money,” with Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Sebastian Stan and Paul Dano all set to lead the cast.
Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”) is directing and producing the film that Black Bear International will present to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival. Screenwriting duo Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum, who are also working on Gillespie’s upcoming “Chippendales” film, will pen the screenplay.
Based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Antisocial Network,” “Dumb Money” tells the tale of riches won and lost overnight in the David vs. Goliath GameStop short squeeze that took Wall Street by storm in January 2021. Using the subreddit r/WallStreetBets, a group of private investors and internet trolls banded together to take down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, a move that threatened to upend the establishment.
Mezrich’s 2009 book “The Accidental Billionaires” was the basis for David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook drama “The Social Network.” He will executive produce “Dumb Money,” along with Michael Heimler, John Friedberg, Andrew Swett, Angelo, Schuker Blum, Johnny Holland, Kevin Ulrich and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, two of the main players in the Facebook story.
Gillespie and Stan previously collaborated on “I, Tonya” and more recently on Hulu’s “Pam & Tommy,” which also featured Rogen.
Stan co-starred with Daisy Edgar-Jones in the black comedy-horror “Fresh” earlier this year, and will next be seen in the films “Sharper” and “A Different Man.” Director-writer-comedian Rogen and Dano are among the cast of Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” set to make its world premiere at TIFF. Before that, Dano starred as The Riddler opposite Robert Pattinson in “The Batman.” “SNL” alum Pete Davidson is currently co-starring in “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and will play a fictionalized version of himself in the TV comedy “Bupkis.”
Principal photography will begin in October.
Black Bear financed the film and will oversee foreign distribution rights. UTA Independent Film Group is handling sales in the U.S.
Deadline first reported the news.
