Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale to star in financial drama The Big Short
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment has lined up several high-profile actors to star in an adaptation of The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine, a non-fiction book about the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The Big Short was written by Michael Lewis, a financial journalist and former bond salesman whose previous books were adapted as Moneyball and The Blind Side. Moneyball was also produced by Plan B, which has developed a reputation for producing hard-hitting dramas like 12 Years A Slave, Selma, and Kick-Ass 2.
Lewis’ book profiles several individuals who, prior to the burst of the housing bubble, figured out that pinning all their hopes on overrated mortgage-backed securities was a dumb idea. They included a half-blind mutual fund manager afflicted with Asperger’s, a Deutsche Bank trader, and a trio of investors who operated a hedge fund out of their garage. Armed with their foresight, many of these people placed bets on the market collapsing and made fortunes when it came to pass, even as their colleagues at major investment banks lost billions.
Aside from Pitt himself, the movie will star fellow Handsomest Club members Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale, although it isn’t known which roles they will play. Adam McKay will handle the writing and directing duties. McKay is probably best known for directing comedies like Step Brothers and the Anchorman movies, so his involvement here could signal that we’re finally ready to laugh about that time all those people lost their houses and jobs en masse.