Director Craig Gillespie is looking to show a new wild true story on the big screen. Last time, he told the entire behind-the-scenes story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy.
Deadline says that he’s signed on to direct MGM’s feature adaptation of New York Times best-seller Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network, according to sources.
The narrative follows one of the year’s most remarkable news events, about a ragtag group of amateurs investors, gamers, and Internet trolls who resurrected a threatened brick-and-mortar video game shop by bringing Wall Street to its knees by reviving GameStop, to make it the first so-called meme stock.
In January 2021, MGM acquired the rights to Mezrich’s book proposal a week after the real-life tale begun developing on Wall Street, and it made it a top priority by recruiting Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo to adapt.
The return of Mezrich (The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal) to MGM with Michael De Luca, who produced the Oscar-winning The Social Network.
The film is being produced by Aaron Ryder of Ryder Picture Company (RPC). And Kevin Ulrich, Gillespie, Mezrich, Tyler Winklevoss, and Cameron will serve as the executive producer.
The film is expected to begin production in late summer or early fall, depending on the availability of locations.
Nick Gillespie has a gift for taking unusual, real-life tales and giving them the right cinematic feel, elevating them even more and earning accolades to show he understands what he’s doing, beginning with I, Tonya, which chronicled the true-life saga of notorious skater Tonya Harding.
The movie received several Oscar nods, including a Best Actress nomination for Margot Robbie who portrayed Harding and an Allison Janney as the mother of Harding.
In addition to that, he’s also directed several installments of Pam and Tommy, a show about how Anderson and Lee’s adult video got stolen and released online for everyone to see.
That show has also received rave reviews, and it should be a strong contender in this year’s Emmy race for limited series.
Director Craig Gillespie is also the name behind the Disney pic Cruella which stars Emma Stone as the villain Cruella de Vil. The film earned over $200 million at the box office.
Now, the studio is collaborating with both Gillespie and Stone for a sequel of the film.