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Netflix Is Already 'Working On' Movie About GameStop And Reddit

Netflix Is Already 'Working On' Movie About GameStop And Reddit

The studio is reportedly in talks with Mark Boal to write the film

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Netflix is said to be planning a movie about everything that's going on with GameStop, Reddit and Wall Street.

The studio doesn't hang around and is reportedly in early-stage talks with Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) about writing the untitled film.

According to Deadline, Noah Centineo (To All The Boys I've Loved Before) is also said to be attached the project, being lined up to play one of the central characters.

This comes right after MGM secured the rights to the book proposal The Antisocial Network, which is reportedly being penned by New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich, who also wrote The Accidental Billionaires which inspired David Fincher's The Social Network.

In case you've been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks or so, GameStop is, unsurprisingly, a video game store in the US.

The story began when members of a Reddit community, r/WallStreetBets, noticed that hedge funds in the US were 'shorting' companies like GameStop, essentially betting against them.

A film is said to be made about GameStop.
PA

Users then began buying up shares in these companies, which forced the price up and for these hedge funds on Wall Street to lose billions and billions of dollars.

Basically, 'short selling' is when investors and hedge funds 'borrow' shares in a company that they think is going to fail.

They then sell these shares for the going rate and buy them back later after they've dropped in price and return them to the firm they borrowed them from, hopefully leaving them with a tidy profit.

However, it's a dangerous bet to make and can be subject something called a 'short squeeze', which is when lots of people start buying shares in the ailing firm, causing its price to sky rocket and that once tidy profit to shrink, and in the case of GameStop, shrink by the second.

Recently, financial data analytics firm Ortex estimates that short-sellers have lost $70.87 billion (£51.8bn) on their investments. The company made this calculation through data collected from agent lenders, prime brokers and broker-dealers.

Mark Boal is said to be in talks to write the movie.
PA

And according to reports, over the last six months or so, the share price for GameStop has risen by around 8,000 percent.

Due to the frenzy surrounding it, UK authorities warned investors to make sure they were fully aware of the laws surrounding 'market manipulation' and the risks of investing in such a volatile market.

A spokesperson for the UK's Financial Conduct Authority said: "The FCA is aware of the situation and continues to closely monitor trading in UK markets. UK investors should take care when trading shares in highly volatile market conditions that they fully understand the risks they are taking. This applies to UK investors trading both US and UK stocks.

"Firms and individuals should also ensure they are familiar with, and abiding by, all regulations including the market abuse and short selling regimes in the jurisdiction they are trading in."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Money, Social Media, US News, Reddit