Adam McKay will adapt the screenplay and direct Michael Lewis’ book about the housing and credit bubble.

Paramount and Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner’s Plan B will produce The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine, which was published in 2010.

“Michael Lewis has the amazing ability to take complex formulas and concepts and turn them into page turners,” said McKay. “Plan B and I connected over that breathless quality the book has. Very excited to jump into this.”

“I am so excited as this project marks my third collaboration with Adam McKay – a tremendously talented filmmaker and one of my favorite storytellers,” said Paramount film group president Adam Goodman.

“There are those rare literary treasures – as with The Big Short – that park in the harbour and you just wait, with hope,” said Plan B. “Adam McKay is a singular voice and talent and a ferocious mind – the vector of Adam and this book is what a producer dreams of.”

McKay most recently co-wrote, produced and directed Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues for Paramount.

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