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

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

MGM acquired the rights to a new book proposal by Mezrich, entitled The Antisocial Network, which will follow the Redditors on Wall Street Bets who took over the hedge funds that were trying to short-sell the GameStop via Deadline.

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

There is no indication of where Mezrich’s book will begin and end, although the book’s proposal will go to publishers at an auction scheduled for February.

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

Sources say Mezrich and his representatives put their proposal on the market at the end of last week, with MGM acquiring the rights on Friday night.

The group of ‘retail investors’ in a segment of Reddit known as Wall Street Bets took the stock market by storm, while asking its members to try to stop at least two hedge funds that were short selling to GameStop.

Wall Street Bets Redditors began buying shares in droves, causing stock prices to skyrocket as the company’s value has risen by 1,700% since December, with the company’s market value increasing by an astonishing $ 10 billion.

They also targeted other “obsolete” companies, such as cellphone maker Nokia and cinema chain AMC Theaters.

This move resulted in the RobinHood trading app placing restrictions on certain stocks, leading to more controversy.

Aaron Ryder will produce the film through his Ryder Picture Company, which has an initial contract 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 sued Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, with the lawsuit at the center of the film The Social Network, with Armie Hammer playing the Winklevoss twins alongside Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin.

Mezrich has written more than 20 books with more than six million copies sold, and he is the only non-fiction author to have two film adaptations open at the top of the box office.

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

Accidental Billionaires spent 18 weeks on the New York Times charts, with the author sharing the USC Scripter Award with Aaron Sorkin for Best Film Adaptation.

He also has two more adaptations in the works, Bitcoin Billionaires and The Midnight Ride, the latter of which will be published in January 2022.

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