The FTX drama isn’t over and Amazon wants a piece of it. The company has teamed up with the Russo brothers, best known for Marvel movies, to create a show about the spectacular collapse of the massive cryptocurrency empire.
Amazon has teamed up with the duo’s production company AGBO to produce the show, which will begin production in spring 2023, Variety first reports. Amazon is also looking for the brothers to lead the program, the report said.
The company confirmed the news in a statement, saying Hunters creator David Weil will be writing the pilot.
“We are delighted to continue our excellent partnership with David, Joe, Anthony and the AGBO team with this exciting series of events. I can’t think of a better partner to bring this multifaceted story to our global Prime Video audience,” said Jennifer Salke, CEO of Amazon Studios.
The Russos are also working with Amazon on a multinational international espionage series called Citadel.
“This is one of the most brutal scams ever perpetrated. It spans many sectors: celebrity, politics, science, technology, crime, sex, drugs and the future of modern finance,” the Russos said in a statement on the forthcoming FTX-centric show. “It revolves around a very mysterious character with complex and potentially dangerous motivations. We want to understand why.”
FTX collapse
FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, have been the focus of media attention around the world after the infamous cryptocurrency exchange crashed earlier this month.
Coindesk previously reported disturbing financial numbers from Alameda Research, the trading company founded by Bankman-Fried and closely associated with the exchange. The report set off a chain of events, culminating in Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao revealing plans to sell FTX’s native FTT token, which he received in an investment exit from the company.
The move has shaken retail investor confidence and sparked a bank run on FTX, exposing fraudulent use of FTX customer data.
Bankman-Fried, who had been under surveillance along with his firm for the past few weeks, tried to bail out FTX by making a deal to be acquired by Binance, its main competitor at the time. Binance went bankrupt after discovering that FTX had dug too deep a hole in its balance sheet. Within days, FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.
Following this chaos, Bankman-Fried gave an interview to a Vox reporter via direct message on Twitter, in which she criticized and complained to regulators about the bankruptcy filing and retracted many old beliefs that he had exposed himself to the world. Since then, reports have also revealed that FTX used corporate funds to buy homes for employees and owes more than $3 billion to its top 50 creditors.
show Time
All this certainly makes for good TV. It also helps that startup founders have become a bedrock hit of a genre in recent years, with hits like “WeCrashed” (Apple TV+) on the WeWork fiasco and Adam Neumann’s (Hulu) “Dropout” on Theranos -Elizabeth the Holmes Saga and “Super Pumped” (Showtime) in Uber directed by Travel Kalanick. As such, Amazon struggles to have a hit show in its catalog centering on a controversial technology founder. But we could see greater acceptance of the FTX story.
Earlier this week, Deadline reported that buyers, including Apple, are trying to sign the next book by famed author Michael Lewis. Lewis, who has written hits that were later adapted into movies like The Big Short, Moneyball and The Blind Side, closely followed Bankman-Fried for more than six months before the recent implosion.
According to Variety, Amazon’s program is based on “internal reporting” from several journalists who have covered the issue extensively.
Source: La Neta Neta
Jason Jack is an experienced technology journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in computer science and engineering, he has a deep understanding of the latest technology trends and developments. He writes about a wide range of technology topics, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, software development, and cybersecurity.
