Casting Call: Flash Boys
In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.
If you have the means to option one of Michael Lewis’ books, we suggest you do it. The author of Moneyball and The Blind Side, Lewis knows how to dig up the sort of characters that make esoteric real-world issues (like credit default swaps or the evolution of the left-tackle position in American football) both interesting and accessible.
A graduate of Princeton and LSE, Lewis spent several years as a trader at the Salomon Brothers in the early ’80. In 1989, he published a book based on his experiences. Titled Liar’s Poker, the book launched Lewis’s second career as a nonfiction writer and tanked Salomon’s reputation. In The Big Short, Lewis’ account of the financial crisis published in 2010, he recounts having lunch with Salomon’s former CEO John Gutfreund. Over deviled eggs, Gutfreund tells Lewis, “I think we can agee about this: Your fucking book destroyed my career and it made yours.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Aaron Sorkin, who worked with Lewis to adapt Moneyball into a film, has his eyes on Lewis latest novel, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. It’s not the first book by Lewis on our list—where are the film versions of Liar’s Poker and The Big Short!—but oh well. Published in March of this year, Flash Boys delves into the world of something called “High Frequency Trading.” If you don’t know what that means now, you can bet you will when Sorkin is finished.
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