The latest real-life story to inspire a major Hollywood production is the bizarre GameStop Short Squeeze of 2021 in which various Wall Street investors had a mini-meltdown over the popular game store where you would go for Wii games in the year 2007. Dumb Money goes in-depth on the squeeze, and the characters are all based on real people, who have since moved on from the debacle.
Dano plays Keith Gill, a real-life vlogger/avid Reddit user who would give investment advice on his YouTube channel, “Roaring Kitty.” Gill would film videos about investing from the basement of his Massachusetts home. In 2021, Gill’s investments reached $48 million in value, though it’s unclear exactly how much he made from GameStop. Now, Gill has maintained a relatively private life and had no involvement in the making of the film. Pete Davidson portrays his brother while Shailene Woodley portrays his wife.
America Ferrera portrays a woman based on real-life single mother Kim Campbell, a nurse who decided to take a chance on investing and ended up buying 100 shares of GameStop, though she didn’t make nearly as much as others.
As for the hedge fund billionaires, Seth Rogen plays Gabe Plotkin, a hedge fund CEO who now co-owns the NBA team Charlotte Hornets, so he’s doing fine. Nick Offerman portrays hedge fund honcho/GOP megadonor Kenneth Griffin, who is reportedly not too happy with his depiction in the film, though he said he would have preferred Daniel Craig.
When it comes to Robinhood, the financial service company that was used in the squeeze, co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt (Sebastian Stan and Rushi Kota in the film) recently reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit after an investigation into the stock market chaos.
Dumb Money, also starring Shailene Woodley, Vincent D’Onofrio, America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, and Sebastian Stan, hits theaters on September 22nd.
(Via Time)
