An internet misanthrope launches a message board for amateur stock pickers, gets kicked off and then watches from afar as this rogue community brings Wall Street to its knees.
That is the hot pitch that turned Jaime Rogozinski into the man every producer in Hollywood wanted to do business with. Earlier this week, the founder of Reddit’s WallStreetBets sold the rights to his life story to RatPac Entertainment, a production company known for backing hits like “Wonder Woman.”
A movie version of Mr. Rogozinski’s story will kick things off and then move on to podcasts and other mediums, RatPac producers say.
In exchange for a payment in the low six figures, Mr. Rogozinski has given exclusive access to RatPac producers—including the company’s head, Brett Ratner, a longtime Hollywood player who recently lost a major deal amid sexual-harassment accusations. They want to dramatize the story of his role in the WallStreetBets saga that has sent shares of struggling companies like GameStop Corp. GME 2.68% surging, driven hedge funds to crippling losses and turned unlikely investors into big winners and losers.
Mr. Rogozinski is already talking with writers who RatPac is considering to write the feature film script.
“Maybe I’ll get to go on the red carpet,” he said.
The race is on to bring the WallStreetBets saga to the screen. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. has acquired 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 on a film that would star young heartthrob Noah Centineo of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
Mr. Ratner said his company is self-financing the project and that the access he now has to Mr. Rogozinski gives his project an edge.
“Anybody can go make a movie about junk bonds, but if Mike Milken cooperates, how much more insight are you going to have?” he said, referring to the financier known for developing high-yield, or junk, bonds, and an insider trading scandal that resulted in his serving time in prison.
Mr. Rogozinski, who says he doesn’t yet have an opinion on which actor should play him in the movie, said he has spent the last two weeks in a daze. In addition to phone calls to his parents’ home and news coverage from as far away as his sister’s home in Israel, he has fielded messages from Hollywood producers eager to cut a deal for his life rights.
Securing the life rights to a person whose story would make a compelling movie or TV show is an increasingly popular tactic of producers who want an edge when competing with other moviemakers eager to get in on a big story. The deal often grants exclusive access to the subject, as well as diaries, photos and other memorabilia that can flesh out the story.
In Mr. Rogozinski’s case, the producers have the right to adapt his story into any conceivable form—podcast, documentary, TV series or even live theatrical event like a play.
The deal came together quickly, Mr. Rogozinski said. Shortly after he was featured in a number of news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rogozinski was bombarded by messages from producers. Busy juggling media interviews with his day job and parenting duties, Mr. Rogozinski turned to his brother, Joel Rogozinski, for help.
Joel Rogozinski reached out to a childhood friend, Michael Smith Liss, who he knew was well connected in Hollywood. In turn, Mr. Smith Liss was able to introduce the brothers to Mr. Ratner.
Mr. Ratner directed the “Rush Hour” trilogy and “X-Men: The Last Stand” but more recently has been known as the co-financier of several major releases at AT&T Inc.’s Warner Bros, including “Jersey Boys” and “Justice League.”
Brett Ratner in 2017.
Photo: danny moloshok/Reuters
His deal with the studio dissolved in 2017 after several women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. Mr. Ratner denied the accusations from the accusers, including actress Olivia Munn. There were no charges filed against Mr. Ratner.
He has maintained a comparatively low profile since then, saying he has been producing documentaries without taking named credits. He came upon the WallStreetBets story, he said, after several friends in the hedge-fund world told him of its importance. One of his best friends, he said, is Jordan Belfort, the former penny-stock trader whose investing downfall was told in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“This story is such a human story of power and uprising, capitalism and socialism, and so much more,” he said.
Mr. Rogozinski hopes the movie will go beyond the past month’s GameStop saga to show WallStreetBets’ entire journey, walking viewers through how a small, off-color Reddit forum he founded in 2012 became a multimillion-user community at the heart of controversy. He also plans to share the low points of his time with WallStreetBets. Mr. Rogozinski was kicked out of his moderator role last spring, something he says stung for quite some time.
“I’m laying it all out on the table. There are going to be some things that are extremely shocking, things that people don’t know about me,” he said.
He’s no stranger to backlash. In the past few weeks, Reddit users who are bitter about his former role at WallStreetBets have written posts blasting him. Some individuals even took to Amazon to leave negative reviews of his book.
News of the movie deal may inflame tensions. But Mr. Rogozinski said he has learned not to feed the trolls.
“I won. They can pretend to have this battle,” he said.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at [email protected] and Akane Otani at [email protected]
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