In May, Sony Corp. is scheduled to release “Money Monster.” Directed by Jodie Foster, the film features George Clooney as the host of a popular financial network show.
“Everybody has somehow a connection to either the collapse of the economy, Wall Street, loss of investment,” said Joe Pichirallo, an executive producer of “Madoff” and the chairman of undergraduate film and television at New York University. “While finances in themselves might not seem sexy, it is a story that masses of people have intersected with on one level or another. There is a lot of interest in why did these things happen.”
1930s Parallels
Kuntz, the film historian and UCLA teacher, sees parallels between the current uptick in movies about the financial world and the early 1930s. During the Depression, there was a surge in films that tried to capture the impact of the crisis on society, the most famous of which were the movies of Frank Capra, starting with “American Madness” in 1932.
Sundance has been a launchpad for acclaimed financial films before. “Boiler Room” and “Margin Call” both premiered there.
“I was curious how this one was going to feel compared to those because it’s from a predominantly female perspective," Trevor Groth, Sundance’s programming director, said of “Equity.” “A writer, director, producers, lead -- all women, in this world. That’s something I’ve never seen before, and it was interesting to see how unique it was because of that but how still it just works as a film.”
In recent years, Sundance has gained renewed importance with major Hollywood studios. As they have shifted more of their production to big-budget action and superhero pictures, they’ve turned to festivals to acquire independent films that may become awards contenders and bring kudos to a studio.
In addition to seeking recognition at Sundance, “Equity” is looking for a distributor. Thomas and Reiner’s company is Broad Street Pictures.
Broad Street
Thomas and Reiner, known for her role in Netflix Inc.’s “Orange Is the New Black,” founded Broad Street Pictures with a mission to employ more women in front of and behind the camera. Most of the film’s investors are from Wall Street, according to the filmmakers, including notable women such as Barbara Byrne, a vice chairman of Barclays, who is credited as a co-producer on the movie, according to IMDB.com.
The filmmakers “cultivated a relationship with women on Wall Street that were interested in seeing their own struggles to shatter the glass ceiling in their environment, represented on screen,” Menon said this week at a panel discussion in Los Angeles.