A24 & Apple to Produce Sam Bankman-Fried Film Written by Lena Dunham

Remember crypto? Well, A24 and Apple Studios are joining forces to bring audiences the not-so-forgotten story of infamous crypto-bro and criminal, Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried, or SBF for short. Born in 1992, SBF is an American entrepreneur who started FTX, or Future Exchange, Trading Ltd. in 2019, which went on to quickly become the third-largest digital currency exchange, once valued at $32 billion. However, as detailed in author Michael Lewis’s New York Times bestseller Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, SBF was and always had been a fraud in his cryptocurrency endeavors. Lewis chronicles the personal story of the unlikely entrepreneur who left the former cryptocurrency exchange and hedge fund company in bankruptcy after an $8 billion-sized hole was found in FTX’s accounts.

Now, the bestselling book is being turned into a film by co-developers and co-producers Apple Studios and A24 with the talented Lena Dunham set to write the script, according to Variety. The script will adapt Lewis’s 2023 novel, visualizing the astounding ascension and eventual implosion of FTX along with that of its founder. Apple and A24 are in early development on a film adaptation, but Lena Dunham stays busy with other projects in the meantime, like her upcoming Netflix romantic comedy series done in partnership with her husband Luis Felber and set to feature Hack’s Megan Stalter.

The creator, star, director, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed HBO series Girls, Dunham is a seasoned filmmaker. Girls ran for six seasons from 2012 to 2017, earning Dunham eight Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe for her work on the show. She has also worked on series including Camping and Generation, and directed the pilot for the HBO series Industry.

While Dunham has left the Mattel Polly Pocket film, the creator is no stranger to film work, having co-written and directed the 2022 feature Catherine Called Birdy starring Bella Ramsey. The TV creator also wrote and directed Sharp Stick, appearing onscreen and playing the role of Heather as well.

Crypto-Bros Are a Content Gold Mine

Lewis published Going Infinite on October 3, 2023, which coincided with the beginning of SBF’s trial, where he was investigated on seven counts of fraud and money laundering. The impeccable and probably planned timing along with the gold mine of a story about an average dude becoming a billionaire almost overnight created much buzz for the book. SBF was convicted of fraud and other related crimes shortly after, in November 2023, which brought even more attention to Lewis’s book.

Here’s the compelling summary of Going Infinite that didn’t need to try too hard to sell the near-unbelievable real-life story:

“When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own―until it all came undone.” – Going Infinite official description

Audiences can expect Lena Dunham to pull from Lewis’s successful book to create a film hopefully more successful than FTX. Before Lewis had even written the book, Apple had already paid the author $5 million for the screen rights for his upcoming book, so with the producers’ confidence in the project, audiences should look forward to the retelling of recent events.