Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo to adapt Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network to screen

MGM Studios has roped in writers Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo to adapt Ben Mezrich’s The Antisocial Network to screen. The novel tells one of the biggest news stories of this year, when a ragtag group of amateur investors, gamers and Internet trolls brought Wall Street to its knees.

Deadline reported that the studio landed the rights to Mezrich’s book proposal in January, just a week after the true-life story began to take shape on Wall Street. Multiple projects followed, including a Netflix film starring Noah Centineo.

MGM’s Michael DeLuca and author Mezrich collaborated previously when the latter's The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal was adapted into the Oscar-winning film The Social Network, which DeLuca produced.

Produced by DeLuca and Pamela Abdy, Johnny Pariseau will oversee the project for the studio. Schuker Blum and Angelo, known for their work in Orange Is The New Black, have a big lineup of projects next which includes Ryan Gosling’s Wolfman.

Mezrich has written more than 20 books, with over six million copies sold. His books include Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, which spent 63 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted for the screen with the film 21, and The Accidental Billionaires, which spent 18 weeks on the NYT bestseller list and appeared on hit bestseller lists in over a dozen countries.

Notably, Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin share a Scripter Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network. Mezrich is the only non-fiction author to have two adaptations open No. 1 at the box office.

Mezrich's Bitcoin Billionaires, another international bestseller, is being made into a motion picture. The Antisocial Network will be published in hardcover, e-book and an audio edition by Hachette Audio in the fall.