Writer/director Adam McKay (Anchorman(s), Step Brothers) has found his next movie. McKay has signed on to develop Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine, into a movie, which he will direct, THR reports. The nonfiction book, published in 2000, documented the housing and credit bubble. Brad Pitt’s company, Plan B, will produce. “Michael Lewis has the amazing ability to take complex formulas and concepts and turn them into page turners,” McKay said. “Plan B and I connected over that breathless quality the book has. Very excited to jump into this.”
McKay recentled told Empire about being excited to adapt the book:
It’s the best book ever written about finance, banking, the stock market. It’s all about five guys who knew that the 2008 collapse was coming before it happened. Some of them try to warn people, and some go, “Screw it, I’m going to short the market!” These were the few sane people who knew what was happening and it’s about what it’s like to be the one person in the room who actually knows that the building is about to collapse and no-one will believe you. It’s a page-turner. You read it and by the end you completely understand the ’08 collapse.
Adam McKay has always had an interest in politics that’s run through his work, but this adaptation of The Big Short marks the first non-comedy project for the former Saturday Night Live head writer. McKay, whose most recent movies is last year’s Anchorman 2, recently said he and Will Ferrell won’t make an Anchorman 3 and that they are done with sequels. McKay is also developing a remake of the 1974 Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier comedy Uptown Saturday Night that he plans to direct, with Nick Stoller rewriting the script and Will Smith potentially starring.
