Amazon making series about FTX collapse with Avengers directors at the helm

3 years ago 1

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Amazon has ordered an eight-episode limited TV series based on the events leading up to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Variety reports.

The first episode (the “pilot”) of the series will be written and executive produced by showrunner David Weil, whose credits include Amazon Prime Video’s Hunters and Solos, and Apple TV+’s Invasion.

According to sources close to the matter, talks are underway to get brothers Joe and Anthony Russo on board as directors and co-executive producers.

The pair is well-known for helming several critically-acclaimed movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), as well as TV shows like Arrested Development and Community.

There are also sources who say that there have been talks with several MCU actors who have worked with Russo brothers to star in the show.

The Russo brothers said the story had great potential not just because it was “one of the most brazen frauds ever committed”.

“It crosses many sectors—celebrity, politics, academia, tech, criminality, sex, drugs, and the future of modern finance,” they stated.

“At the centre of it all sits an extremely mysterious figure with complex and potentially dangerous motivations. We want to understand why.”

Amazon is aiming for the series to enter production in the US spring of 2023.

The production will draw from “insider reporting” by journalists who have covered FTX and its disgraced co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

FTX quickly became one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges after launching in 2019.

But in the past few weeks, it has all come tumbling down for the exchange.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in early November 2022 following a flurry of customer withdrawals following a report by CoinDesk which pointed out leverage and solvency concerns which involved trading firm Alameda Research.

In mere days, its valuation went from $32 billion to zero, dragging SBF’s net-worth from $16 billion to near-zero and forcing him to resign from the company. But the matter does not end there.

SBF faces possible criminal investigations after a class-action lawsuit was filed claiming that he created FTX as a fraudulent crypto scheme which exploited less-knowledgeable investors across the US.

Over $2 billion (R34.18 billion) in customer funds are suspected to have gone missing from the company and federal investigations have been launched into its activities.

FTX’s collapse has rattled the entire crypto industry, with crypto coins losing billions in value in the past few weeks.