Lena Dunham Will Write Film Adaptation of Michael Lewis’s Sam Bankman-Fried Book

Earlier this year, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of fraud charges in connection to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in a highly-covered trial. Now, the founder’s story is going from fraud to film. Lena Dunham will write the script for an upcoming Apple Studios and A24 film chronicling Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall.

The film will be the latest Michael Lewis book-to-screen adaptation, this time lifting from Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. Lewis previously authored The Blind Side, The Big Short, and Moneyball, all of which were crafted into big-screen projects starring the likes of Sandra Bullock, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and more.

In reviews of Going Infinite, critics admonished Lewis for mishandling his proximity to his subject throughout the book. The author had spent months in the Bahamas with Bankman-Fried before his crypto empire came crashing down. When it did, Lewis admitted during an interview on 60 Minutes that he didn’t believe the FTX founder knowingly misdirected more than $8 billion of customers’ money. But it was that faith and proximity that provided Going Infinite with enough material for Dunham to work with.

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“When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby,” the book’s official description reads. “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?”

It continues: “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.”