Indie Drama ‘Margin Call’ Invests in Simon Baker and Paul Bettany

Now that casting has been completed (adding Simon Baker and Paul Bettany), if I were a distributor, I’d hedge my bets on the prospectus on this indie drama about the recent financial crisis. To be directed by first timer J.C. Chandor, the pic also has Zachary Quinto and vets Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci. Filming begins next week in New York on Margin Call (with perhaps some exterior shots of Wall Street) for Before the Door Pictures’ Quinto, Neal Dodson and Corey Moosa are producing alongside Joe Jenckes and Benaroya Pictures’ Michael Benaroya and Robert Ogden Barnum. 

Written by Chandor, the project revolves around employees of an investment bank during a tumultuous 24-hour period during the 2008 financial collapse. Baker will portray a ruthless, high-powered securities broker who oversees the characters played by Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto and drives his colleagues to win by any means necessary. Bettany will play a top-tier trader, unabashedly unafraid of who he is even as the crisis deepens.

I imagine there’ll be no shortage of financial meltdown dramas in the near future – and more than the dot com bust of the early 00’s. Spacey already has Bagman lined up for a release this year (TIFF will most likely be the lieu of the premiere) and Brad Pitt has Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine in tow.