Steve Carell Joins a Bunch of Hunks in 'The Big Short'

Just the other day we reported that Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, and Christian Bale are set to star in ‘The Big Short,’ aka the hunkiest movie ever made featuring a bunch of hunks. And it looks like Steve Carell really wants to be a hunk too, as he’s just joined the cast of the new film, which is being adapted by ‘Anchorman’ director Adam McKay from the bestselling book by Michael Lewis.

THR reports that Carell will reunite with his ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’ co-star Ryan Gosling in ‘The Big Short,’ alongside Bale and Pitt. Pitt is producing the film via his Plan B banner, and although it previously seemed uncertain, it’s now been confirmed that McKay will indeed direct in addition to providing the screenplay—which marks a bit of a departure from the filmmaker’s typical comedies. Pitt’s Plan B previously produced the Oscar-winning ‘12 Years a Slave’ and the awards-favorite ‘Selma,’ which means we could be looking at a future Oscar contender here.

‘The Big Short’ is based on a true story, and follows multiple players through the housing and credit financial crises in the ‘00s that led to the U.S. stock market crash in 2007, which only became public knowledge in 2008. Carell is set to play Steve Eisman, a money manager for FrontPoint Partners, who shorted subprime mortgages.

Gosling will play Greg Lippmann, a Deutsche bank trader; Bale plays Michael Burry, the founder of Scion Capital, who was one of the earliest people to predict the coming financial crisis; and Pitt has a supporting role as Ben Hockett, a partner at Cornwall Capital.

Here’s the official synopsis for Michael Lewis’ book, ‘The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine’:

When the crash of the U. S. stock market became public knowledge in the fall of 2008, it was already old news. The real crash, the silent crash, had taken place over the previous year, in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine, and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.
The crucial question is this: Who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a risk compounded daily by the creation of those arcane, artificial securities loosely based on piles of doubtful mortgages? Michael Lewis turns the inquiry on its head to create a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker. Who got it right? he asks. Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception? And what qualities of character made those few persist when their peers and colleagues dismissed them as Chicken Littles?

There’s no word yet on when the film will head into production or when we might see it hit theaters.