I’ll be honest, I hadn’t even heard that best-selling book Freakonomics was being turned into a movie, as it’s a lot of statistics and concepts that while quite interesting to read, don’t really seem like they’d translate to the big screen very well. But a film adaptation is in the works, and Magnolia Pictures has just picked up the rights to the project.
The original book was the subject of much controversy, as it put forth controversial ideas like that legalized abortion decreased crimes rates (they claim data shows unwanted kids are more likely to grow up to be criminals), but also for economic reasons, as experts in the field said authors Levitt and Dubner were misguided in many of their claims or used faulty logic to achieve their findings.
But fact or fiction, it’s hitting the big screen, but how exactly do you bring something like this to life? With an all-star team of documentary filmmakers of course, which includes the likes of Alex Gibney (ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (JESUS CAMP), Morgan Spurlock (SUPER SIZE ME), Eugene Jarecki (WHY WE FIGHT) and Seth Gordon (THE KING OF KONG) who are all chipping in to film various sections of the book. It’s an interesting amalgam, and I’m curious to see what the final product ends up looking like.
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