A highly anticipated movie that features one of the most infamous stock market storylines of the last decade has revealed more details of its cast and released a first trailer.
What Happened: A fierce battle between retail traders and hedge funds will be chronicled on the big screen with the release of “Dumb Money” on Sept. 22, 2023. The movie stars Paul Dano, Pete Davidson and Seth Rogen.
Based on the Ben Mezrich book “The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees,” the movie tells the story of the rise of GameStop Corporation GME shares that happened in 2021.
The GameStop saga featured many characters, including Citron Research’s Andrew Left, who shared his thesis of betting against GameStop stock live on Benzinga’s “Power Hour” show. The live interview served as one of the catalysts that drove shares higher.
The new movie from Sony Group Corp SONY will share details on other central characters. A first look from Vanity Fair provides further details on the cast and the characters they play.
Paul Dano as Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty: One of the central characters of the story, Gill was well known on Reddit, where he shared a thesis of investing in GameStop shares. Gill saw his small investment turn into millions as shares of GameStop rose.
“I saw that as somebody who’s unafraid to say, ‘This is me,’” Dano said of Gill. “We all worry about what people think about us, and how we dress, and blah, blah, blah. When you see somebody who’s owning themself, I think it always has a natural charisma.”
Shailene Woodley as Caroline Gill: Woodley plays Gill’s wife in the movie, who tries to offer advice to her husband, despite their life savings being at risk.
Pete Davidson as Kevin Gill: Davidson plays the brother of Roaring Kitty.
Seth Rogen as Gabe Plotkin (Melvin Capital): Rogen plays one of the hedge funders in the movie who loses money as the price of GameStop stock goes up.
“Could you explain to me, conceptually, what shorting a stock is and why this is a thing that exists? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it,” Rogen said.
One of the opening movie scenes is said to focus on Plotkin trying to buy a mansion next to his so that he can tear it down to build a tennis court instead.
“I don’t need to like the person in order to play them. He’s not someone I was particularly sympathetic towards.”
Rogen said he’s not sure if Plotkin, who recently bought the Charlotte Hornets, is a villain.
America Ferrera as Jenny Campbell: Ferrera plays a nurse and single mother who invests heavily in GameStop after watching Gill and seeing his passion for the stock.
“This is a character who seems like she’s living paycheck to paycheck,” Ferrera said. “She doesn’t have the privilege of losing it all and knowing that there is going to be a safety net there for her.”
Anthony Ramos as Marcus, a GameStop clerk: Ramos plays an everyday GameStop employee who buys shares of the stock to try and get away from a minimum wage job.
Sebastian Stan as Vlad Tenev: Stan plays the well-known CEO and co-founder of Robinhood Markets HOOD, a stock brokerage that found itself caught up in the retail traders versus hedge funders battle.
Nick Offerman as Ken Griffin (Citadel): Offerman plays Citadel founder Griffin, who also faces losses as shares of GameStop rise.
“He’s not as involved as the rest, just by the nature of their business model,” Director Craig Gillespie says of Griffin. “They just make money on all the trades. He’s profiting on everyone. He is not emotionally invested in any of this.”
Vincent D’Onofrio as Steven Cohen: D’Onofrio plays the head of Point72 Asset Management, a hedge fund that saw big losses from the GameStop rally. A scene in the movie features a pig in Cohen’s house that was inspired by a New York Post story on Cohen having a pet pig living with him, according to Gillespie.
Related Link: GameStop Short Squeeze Anniversary: A Look Back At David Vs. Goliath Battle
Why It’s Important: The movie hopes to highlight the role that small investors, Reddit groups and YouTube videos played in taking on the ultrawealthy.
“The backstory of how it unfolded is like a cross between ‘Caddyshack’ and ‘Wall Street,’ with the nobodies outmaneuvering the somebodies – at least until the rules abruptly change,” Vanity Fair writes.
Director Gillespie shared with Vanity Fair his personal connection to the story of GameStop.
“My son, who’s 24, was very involved in the whole run, and happened to be living at our house at the time. So through him, I got to experience the emotional roller coaster and the pain and the frustration and the outrage,” Gillespie said.
The director said the movie tries to show the early traders who got in and made money, the ones who invested late and the ones who didn’t sell.
Mezrich has shared his excitement about the movie, a new trailer and the casting on his Twitter.
“This is going to be The Social Network for the next generation,” Mezrich tweeted.
A new movie trailer debuted on Thursday, which highlighted many of the characters above.
“If he’s in, I’m in,” several people are seen saying after watching Gill’s videos.
“You got rich dudes pissing in their pants now,” Kevin Gill says.
Another quote from one of the hedge funders is: “Retail traders always lose,” which might sum up the core of the movie and the rally that was sparked in 2021.
The storyline of GameStop has been turned into several documentaries previously including, “GameStop: Rise of the Players,” “Gaming Wall Street” and “Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga.”
Read Next: Who Is Roaring Kitty?
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