The Big Short

The literary source is Michael Lewis’s 2010 book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. The adaptation turns its account of the mortgage market and financial crisis into a scripted feature film.⁠[1][2]

Plan B Entertainment and Regency Enterprises produced the film, with Paramount Pictures distributing it. Production manager Louise Rosner recalled six weeks of preparation, 87 locations across three states and 145 actors. Some Wall Street scenes combined downtown New Orleans and New York, while Las Vegas filming used Caesars PalaceCaesars PalaceCaesars Palace is an ancient Rome-themed casino resort hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Opened on August 5, 1966, by hotel developer Jay Sarno, it is known for its ancient Roman-themed architecture, the Forum Shops mall, and the Colosseum theater. Since 2017, its real estate has been owned by VICI Properties and leased and operated by Caesars Entertainment.Open the full entry.⁠[1][3]

The film was selected for the closing night of AFI FEST 2015, with its world premiere at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre. AFI announced the selection on September 22.⁠[4]

In Directors Guild of America discussions, McKay addressed making credit default swaps and derivatives accessible through film. The movie breaks the fourth wall and uses cameos by Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain difficult financial concepts.⁠[5]

AFI records the US release date as December 11, 2015. The English-language, color and sound film runs 130 minutes in its US version and is rated R. Paramount classifies it as drama/comedy.⁠[1][2]

Charles Randolph and Adam McKay won BAFTA’s Adapted Screenplay award for the film. In his acceptance speech, McKay said its concerns extended beyond banking to income inequality and who makes decisions for society.⁠[6]

At the 88th Academy Awards, the film received five nominations: Best Picture, Directing, Supporting Actor, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay. Randolph and McKay won for their screenplay. The other nominees were producers Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner; director McKay; actor Christian Bale; and editor Hank Corwin.⁠[7]

The story follows several groups of finance professionals who identify mortgage risk during the housing boom and establish short positions. Christian Bale plays Michael BurryMichael BurryMichael Burry is an investor and founder of Scion Capital and Scion Asset Management who trained in medicine. He became known for using credit default swaps to bet against mortgage securities before the US subprime crisis and is one of the real people depicted in The Big Short.Open the full entry, Steve Carell plays Mark Baum, Ryan Gosling plays Jared Vennett and Brad Pitt plays Ben Rickert. Burry uses a real person’s name; scripted scenes and dialogue should not automatically be treated as historical records.⁠[2][1]

Alongside director/co-writer Adam McKay and co-writer Charles Randolph, the principal crew includes cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, editor Hank Corwin, production designer Clayton Hartley and composer Nicholas Britell. Producers include Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Arnon Milchan.⁠[1][2]

Paramount’s German website maintains a film profile and viewing links at https://www.paramount.de/the-big-short (opens in a new window). The entry image is the original German-market cover supplied there; local runtime and age-rating information applies to that regional version.⁠[8]