“Dumb Money” is a new comedy-drama film directed by Craig Gillespie that is based on a true and unbelievable story.
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the film.
- Dumb Money is a 2023 American biographical comedy-drama film
- It is directed by Craig Gillespie
- The film is written by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo
- It is based on the 2021 book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich
- The film chronicles the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021
- The film features an ensemble cast that includes Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley, and Seth Rogen
- Dumb Money premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2023
- It was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing in limited theaters on September 15, 2023
- It will expand into wide release on September 29, 2023
- Based on the true story of a group of rag-tag investors from the Reddit page called r/WallStreetBets
- They banded together to put the squeeze on at least two hedge funds that had bet that GameStop shares would fall
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 85% rating
- Based on 67 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 7.0/10
- The website’s consensus reads: “Dumb Money’s crowd-pleasing dramatization of real-life stock hijinks may not tell the complete story, but it’s rousingly entertaining nonetheless”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100
- Based on 22 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- In January 2021, it was announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures had bought the rights to a book proposal by Ben Mezrich about the then-recent GameStop short squeeze, entitled The Antisocial Network
- With producers Michael De Luca, who also produced The Social Network (2010)
- This would be the film adaptation of Mezrich’s novel The Accidental Billionaires, and Aaron Ryder attached
- In May 2021, Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo were announced to write the screenplay, with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (who were subjects in The Accidental Billionares and The Social Network) executive producing
- In April 2022, Craig Gillespie signed on as director, with the intention of filming to start later that year around summer or fall
- In September, it was announced that the film was retitled to Dumb Money, and production was set to commence in October, with De Luca and MGM dropping out
- While Black Bear Pictures acquired financing and sought buyers at the annual Toronto International Film Festival
- In October 2022, Sony Pictures bought the domestic and select international distribution rights to the film for $20 million
- In September 2022, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan and Pete Davidson were set to star
- Rogen and Stan previously collaborated with Gillespie on the miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022)
- With Stan also having starred in Gillespie’s film I, Tonya (2017)
- The following month, Shailene Woodley, Anthony Ramos, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dane DeHaan, Myha’la Herrold, America Ferrera, Rushi Kota, Nick Offerman, and Talia Ryder joined the cast
- Principal photography took place in New Jersey from October to November 2022
- Filming was done in Morris, Essex and Hudson counties
- With scenes filmed at Saint Elizabeth University
- The film was initially set to be distributed by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
- Sony, Black Bear International and other indie distributors will be releasing the film internationally
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