Two Films About Reddit's 'GameStonk' Controversy Are Already In The Works

Well, folks, Hollywood has officially done it again -- less than a week after stories of retail investing Redditors working together to take on taking on Wall Street dominated the headlines, our social feeds, and the national conversation, two separate films detailing r/WallStreetBets and their market implications are reportedly already in the works.

First on the docket? None other than Netflix, according to Deadline. Just days after GameStop's share price soared by approximately 135% over the span of one trading day, the streaming giant has allegedly already made strides in developing a film adaptation of these notable events. So far, The Hurt Locker's Mark Boal is in negotiations to pen the script, with Noah Centineo, the heartthrob from the To All The Boys I've Loved Before series "attached to play a major role,"  presumably as a Reddit-lurking wannabe-investor who hit it big as $GME went BRRR.  Scott Galloway, a highly-controversial NYU professor, advertising expert, and bona fide boomer is also "in talks" to work as a script consultant on the project, in spite of his highly-publicized rants, detailing his evident frustration over young people using stock trading apps at Reddit's behest instead of *checks notes *  getting laid?

"What happened here (i.e., GMS)?," Galloway mused last week on Twitter. "It's about sex... --Specifically, young men not having (enough) sex --Sex leads to relationships, obligations and guardrails (don't get in fights, we need you. Don't gamble your paycheck, we need to save for a house)." 

"Arm young men, in a basement, not at work, not having sex, not forming connection, with an RH account, a phone and stimulus and you have the perfect storm of volatility as they wage war against established players while squeezing the dopa bag,,,harder and harder," he wrote later in the four-tweet thread. More like not harder and harder, am I right?

Galloway seemed the double down on these strange sexual sentiments amid a stint on MSNBC earlier this week. "Maybe it's fun, fine," Galloway explained to anchor, Stephanie Ruhle, of the Reddit-controlled market boom on Monday "But the biggest loss of capital will be the human capital of young men who are sitting and staring at their phone, watching the price of Bitcoin or the price of AMC. Ask yourself, 'Would you be better off taking that one, two, or three hours a day and working out, trying to form relationships, romantic relations, getting great at something so you can be the person on the other side of the trade?' Similar to how there's a ton of young women out there who became very depressed by looking at Instagram, self-cutting, and self-harm skyrocketed … I think you are going to see an explosion in young male depression." ... okay then. That is definitely, uh, an opinion on this whole debacle. 

Yet as one of Cracked's editor's pointed out earlier today, in light of Galloway's apparent fears of Reddit's market stronghold churning out a generation of incels, Centineo seems like a very odd casting choice, considering he is an extremely attractive RomCom star, who is set to grace the big screen as both a live-action He-Man and superhero Atom Smasher. I guess nothing screams "sexless, sad men staring at the stocks app on their phone" than a certifiable 20-something heartthrob? 

Centineo's hotness aside, the rest of the film's details are still up in the air, as Netflix declined to comment on the story, and well, the fact that we have yet to see GameStonk's resolution IRL. Even with these variables, the outlet reports that the film's angle will work as a larger parable for the role of social media, tying the stock market phenomenon to other socio/political events over the past year. "Sources said the intention is to use the GameStop episode as a specific way to shine a light on the phenomenon of how social media has leveled the playing field and allowed the masses to challenge status quo gatekeepers, for good and bad," wrote Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline's Film Co-Editor-in-Cheif, of the project. "The examples range from the stock spike for GameStop, AMC and other formerly lagging stocks that are subject to the short-selling maneuvers of billion-dollar hedge funds, to the social media spread of unfounded election rigging charges conveyed by conservative social media sites and Trump Tweets that fired up right-wing extremists to storm the Capitol while President Biden’s election was being certified, leading to the death of five people."

However, it's not just Netflix getting in on the Wall Street brouhaha. In what may be the most intangible deal of all time, MGM and the Winklevoss Twins, a.k.a. the marginally-creepy Harvard-educated twin brothers that once got really mad at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, chronicled in 2010's The Social Network, have reportedly acquired the rights to an unwritten book about the fiasco. After what Deadline described as a "competitive situation," the group was able to snag the rights to the pitch, appropriately entitled "The Antisocial Network." The book, which has yet to find a publisher, will be written by New York Times best-selling author, Ben Mezrich known for writing The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, a Tale Of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, which was eventually adapted into the early 20-teens Zuckerberg biopic. 

So, folks, it's been a long year and it's only February -- at least someday, we can all sit down with a nice big bowl of popcorn and a movie unpacking the last 30-odd days. 

For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram at @HuntressThompson_, on Twitch.tv @HuntressThompson_ on Twitter @TennesAnyone.

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