If it’s anything like the book Going Infinite by Michael Lewis, it’ll probably be a relatively sympathetic portrayal. My initial impression from the announcement post is that it at least sounds like the angle they’re going for is misguided haphazard idealists (which Lewis also did), rather than mere criminal masterminds.
Graham Moore is best known for the Imitation Game, the movie about Alan Turing, and his portrayal was a classic “misunderstood genius angle”. If he brings that kind of energy to a movie about SBF, we can hope he shows EA in a positive light as well.
Another possible comparison you could make would be with the movie The Social Network, which was inspired by real life, but took a lot of liberties and interestingly made Dustin Moskovitz (who funds a lot of EA stuff through Open Philanthropy) a very sympathetic character. (Edit: Confused him and Eduardo Saverin).
I also think there’s lots of precedence for Hollywood to generally make dramas and movies that are sympathetic to apparent “villains” and “antiheroes”. Mindless caricatures are less interesting to watch than nuanced portrayals of complex characters with human motivations. The good fiction at least tries to have that kind of depth.
So, I’m cautiously optimistic. When you actually dive deeper into the story of SBF, you realize he’s more complex than yet another crypto grifter, and I think a nuanced portrayal could actually help EA recover a bit from the narrative that we’re just a TESCREAL techbro cult.
I do also agree in general that we should be louder about the good that EA has actually done in the world.
If it’s anything like the book Going Infinite by Michael Lewis, it’ll probably be a relatively sympathetic portrayal. My initial impression from the announcement post is that it at least sounds like the angle they’re going for is misguided haphazard idealists (which Lewis also did), rather than mere criminal masterminds.
Graham Moore is best known for the Imitation Game, the movie about Alan Turing, and his portrayal was a classic “misunderstood genius angle”. If he brings that kind of energy to a movie about SBF, we can hope he shows EA in a positive light as well.
Another possible comparison you could make would be with the movie The Social Network, which was inspired by real life, but took a lot of liberties and
interestingly made Dustin Moskovitz (who funds a lot of EA stuff through Open Philanthropy) a very sympathetic character.(Edit: Confused him and Eduardo Saverin).I also think there’s lots of precedence for Hollywood to generally make dramas and movies that are sympathetic to apparent “villains” and “antiheroes”. Mindless caricatures are less interesting to watch than nuanced portrayals of complex characters with human motivations. The good fiction at least tries to have that kind of depth.
So, I’m cautiously optimistic. When you actually dive deeper into the story of SBF, you realize he’s more complex than yet another crypto grifter, and I think a nuanced portrayal could actually help EA recover a bit from the narrative that we’re just a TESCREAL techbro cult.
I do also agree in general that we should be louder about the good that EA has actually done in the world.
Minor thing, but I don’t remember Dustin being portrayed much in The Social Network? Do you mean Eduardo Saverin?
Oh, woops, I totally confused the two. My bad.
Yeah, he is. He was played by Joseph Mazzello.