Looking like it's pitched somewhere between Margin Call and The Wolf Of Wall Street, ensemble drama The Big Short is a bit of a departure for Anchorman director Adam McKay. Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, Melissa Leo, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Karen Gillan and Selena Gomez are all among the impressive cast riding the financial crisis, and the first trailer has just arrived online, courtesy of studio Paramount.
McKay has been developing this one for a while now, working up something very different from his usual comedy brand. It's based on Moneyball author Michael Lewis’ book, subtitled 'Inside The Doomsday Machine', and follows several key people who had roles in creating the toxic credit bubble that sent the financial markets into panic mode over the last decade.
Carell is Steve Eisman, a money manager who shorted subprime mortgages for FrontPoint Partners, while Gosling is Deutsche Bank trader Greg Lippmann. Bale is Michael Burry, the founder of the Scion Capital and one of the first people to predict the coming crisis. And Pitt, in more of a supporting part, is Ben Hockett, a partner at Cornwall Capital.
McKay also wrote the screenplay with Charles Randolph (Love And Other Drugs). Pitt is also among the producers, and shooting took place earlier this year in New Orleans.
**The Big Short **is out in the UK on January 22. Lewis's book is published in the UK by Penguin.