An internet misanthrope launches a message board for amateur stock pickers, is kicked out and then watched from afar, while this rogue community brings Wall Street to its knees.
This is the hot tone that turned Jaime Rogozinski into the man every Hollywood producer wanted to do business with. Earlier this week, Reddit’s WallStreetBets founder sold his life story rights to RatPac Entertainment, a production company known for supporting hits such as “Wonder Woman.”
A film version of Mr. Rogozinski’s story will start things off and then move on to podcasts and other media, say producers RatPac.
In return for a six-figure payment, Mr Rogozinski granted exclusive access to RatPac producers – including the head of the company, Brett Ratner, a longtime Hollywood player who recently lost a major deal amid allegations of sexual harassment. They want to dramatize the story of his role in the WallStreetBets saga, which sent shares of struggling companies such as GameStop. Body.
GME 2.68%
growth, led hedge funds to crippling losses and turned unlikely investors into big winners and losers.
Mr. Rogozinski is already talking to writers about whom RatPac plans to write the feature film.
“Maybe I’ll get to the red carpet,” he said.
The race is to bring the WallStreetBets saga to the screen. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. purchased a book proposal about the events written by Ben Mezrich, whose previous books were adapted into the films “21” and “The Social Network”. Netflix Inc.
is in talks with “Zero Dark Thirty” screenwriter Mark Boal in a film starring young Noah Centineo in “To All the Boys I Loved Before.”
Mr Ratner said his company was self-financing the project and that he now had access to Mr Rogozinski to give his project an advantage.
“Anyone can make a movie about unwanted bonds, but if Mike Milken cooperates, how much more information will you have?” he said, referring to the financier known for developing high-yield or junk bonds, and a prime deal scandal that led to the execution of his jail time.
Mr Rogozinski, who says he still has no opinion on the actor who should play him in the film, said he had spent the last two weeks in amazement. In addition to phone calls to his parents’ home and remote news as well as his sister’s home in Israel, he sent messages from Hollywood producers eager to reach an agreement for his life rights.
In just five days, GameStop shares have risen by up to 500%. The WSJ looked at how Reddit posts, YouTube videos and tweets from celebrities, including Elon Musk, spread online and fueled a trading frenzy that turned Wall Street upside down. Photo illustration: George Downs / WSJ
Securing the life rights of a person whose story would make a compelling movie or TV show is an increasingly popular tactic for producers who want an advantage when competing with other filmmakers eager to make a big story. . The agreement often provides exclusive access to the topic, as well as diaries, photos, and other memorabilia that can materialize the story.
In the case of Mr. Rogozinski, producers have the right to adapt their story in any imaginable form – podcast, documentary, TV series or even live theatrical events, like a play.
The agreement was concluded quickly, Mr Rogozinski said. Shortly after being featured in a number of news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Mr Rogozinski was bombarded with messages from producers. Interviews with jugglers in the media with his daily job and parental duties, Mr. Rogozinski turned to his brother, Joel Rogozinski, for help.
Joel Rogozinski contacted a childhood friend, Michael Smith Liss, whom he knew was well connected to Hollywood. For his part, Mr. Smith Liss succeeded in introducing him to Mr. Ratner’s brothers.
Mr. Ratner directed the “Rush Hour” and “X-Men: The Last Stand” trilogy, but was most recently known as the co-financier of several major AT&T releases. Inc
Warner Bros., including “Jersey Boys” and “Justice League.”
Brett Ratner in 2017.
Photo:
danny moloshok / Reuters
His agreement with the studio was terminated in 2017 after several women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. Mr Ratner has denied allegations by prosecutors, including actress Olivia Munn. No charges have been filed against Mr. Ratner.
Since then, he has maintained a relatively low profile, saying he has produced documentaries without taking named credits. He came to the WallStreetBets story, he said, after several friends in the hedge fund told him about its importance. One of his best friends, he said, is Jordan Belfort, a former penny stock trader whose investment was told in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“This story is a human story about power and rebellion, capitalism and socialism and much more,” he said.
Mr Rogozinski hopes the film will go beyond last month’s GameStop saga to showcase WallStreetBets’ entire journey, taking viewers through how a small, colorful reddit forum he founded in 2012 has become a community of millions of users. people, at the center of controversy. He also intends to share the low points of his time with WallStreetBets. Mr Rogozinski was fired as moderator last spring, which he said he had understood for some time.
“I put everything on the table. There will be some extremely shocking things, things that people don’t know about me, “he said.
It is no stranger to react. In the last few weeks, Reddit users who are bitter about his former role at WallStreetBets have been writing posts that throw him off. Some individuals even went to Amazon to leave negative reviews of his book.
News about understanding the film can inflame tensions. But Mr Rogozinski said he had learned not to feed the trolls.
“I won. They can pretend they have this battle,” he said.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at [email protected] and Akane Otani at [email protected]
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