‘Dumb Money’: Read The Screenplay That Shrewdly Takes Stock Of The GameStop Wall Street Phenomenon

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Dumb Money, directed by Craig Gillespie and penned by financial journalists-turned-screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo based on Ben Mezrich’s bestseller The Antisocial Network.

The goal for the Columbia Pictures/Stage 6/Black Bear Pictures production was to make accessible its topic: the short-squeeze tale of GameStop stock, which in 2021 was flailing and destined to become another short-sell win for hedge funds.

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That’s where Keith Gill comes in. Played by Paul Dano, he centers the movie’s POV as he sinks his life savings into GameStop and posts about it on Reddit. HIs tips become a movement, GameStop became the first meme stock, and the hedge-funders lost billions.

Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley and Seth Rogen also star in the pic, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and rolled into theaters via Sony Pictures beginning in mid-September.

At Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles, the writers talked about drilling down into Dumb Money‘s organizing theme: a David vs. Goliath tale fueled by social media-driven populism. That led to incluing actual posts from investors.

“That is one of the most important forces shaping the world today,” Angelo said. “We’ve been working for years to develop a cinematic language that would make that experience visceral and connections emotional. We thought, ‘Finally, here’s our opportunity to deploy this skill set.’ ”

Added Schuker Blum: “Our characters aren’t in the same room, they never meet. We had to dig into telling this story about this ensemble in a really fresh way.”

Click below to read the script:

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