H’Wood and Crypto
Judging by the notoriety of cryptocurrencies it’s strange that Hollywood has yet to produce a big movie centered around Bitcoin. Something in the vein of Swordfish II, where Hugh Jackman breaks a SHA-256 encryption in a single minute, hacks his way into dozens of multisig wallets and pulls off a 51% attack, all by using his phone and while having his prostate stimulated. Well, two such American films have just been announced.
The first is called Crypto and is about “an agent investigating money laundering via blockchain, who gets enmeshed in a dangerous underworld populated by a mysterious art dealer, a crypto-currency enthusiast turned cyber-sleuth, and a corrupt accountant.” The producers are hyping it as a tense techno-thriller and comparing it to the likes of The Firm and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s currently being shot and is set to reach cinemas next year, the only big name associated with it being Kurt Russell, albeit in a side role. We hope it turns out at least somewhat credible, which tends to be the main hurdle in genre movies of this type. Bitcoins can’t be stolen simply by mashing a keyboard with a gun to your head and your dick in some blonde’s mouth. On the other hand being excessively technological means that only geeks get what’s going on which can kill it for the average moviegoer.
The more interesting of the two seems to be Dark Web by Fox. The screenplay was written by the Coen brothers and is about the famous darknet drug market Silk Road from six years ago. The protagonist is Ross Ulbricht, the founder who used the secretive protocol Tor and a completely unregulated Bitcoin of the time to realize his idea of anonymous drug trade. This resulted in cryptocurrencies getting a bad rep for years to come, since it showed them as something used primarily by crooks. Contrary to all the documentaries dealing with the subject, this one is going to be a feature film. It’s slated for release next year, with filming to begin in the fall. No actors have been confirmed as of today.
