MGM secures rights to Ben Mezrich’s book proposal The Antisocial Network

12 years after exploring the origins of Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, author Ben Mezrich is now exploring the GameStop / Wall Street Bets saga, which will be turned into a film.

MGM has reclaimed the rights to a new book proposal from Mezrich called The Antisocial Network, which will follow Wall Street Bets Redditors who have taken hedge funds by trying to short-sell GameStop, via Deadline.

Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires was adapted into the 2010 film The Social Network, with this new project reuniting Mezrich with Michael De Luca, who produced The Social Network and is now the president of MGM.

There is no indication of the start and end of Mezrich’s book, although the book proposal is being sent to publishers at an auction scheduled for February.

Mezrich certainly moved quickly on one of the biggest stories of the year, which is barely a week old.

Sources say Mezrich and his representatives put his proposal on the market late last week, with MGM reclaiming the rights on Friday evening.

The “ retail investor ” group of a Reddit thread known as Wall Street Bets has taken the stock market by storm, asking its members to try and shut down at least two hedge funds that were short selling video game retailer GameStop.

Wall Street Bets Redditors began buying stocks in droves, which pushed up the share’s value as the company’s value rose 1700% since December, with the company’s market value rising by $ 10 billion. dollars.

They also attacked other “obsolete” companies such as cellphone maker Nokia and the AMC Theaters movie channel.

This move led to the RobinHood trading app to impose restrictions on certain stocks, which resulted in more controversy.

Aaron Ryder will produce the film through his Ryder Picture Company, which has a first look deal with MGM.

There will also be another unique connection to The Social Network, with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss producing through their production company Winklevoss Pictures.

The Winklevoss twins have sued Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, with the lawsuit at the heart of The Social Network, Armie Hammer playing the two Winklevoss twins alongside Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin .

Mezrich has written over 20 books with over six million copies sold, and he’s the only non-fiction writer to have two open film adaptations at the top of the box office.

He wrote Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent 63 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted into the 2008 film 21.

Accidental Billionaires spent 18 weeks on the New York Times charts, the author sharing the USC Scripter Award with Aaron Sorkin for best film adaptation.

It also has two other adaptations in the works, Bitcoin Billionaires and The Midnight Ride, the latest of which will be released in January 2022.

The Midnight Ride was originally a series of articles published by the Boston Globe, with Amblin Pictures obtaining the rights to the film.