Motive Pictures Adapting The Trading Game for TV

Motive Pictures, backed by Fifth Season, has optioned the rights to develop economist and former financial trader Gary Stevenson’s autobiography The Trading Game as a limited series.

The Trading Game charts Stevenson’s rise from the streets of East London to becoming the top trader in the world for Citibank and his subsequent descent into depression as he fought to escape the world he found himself trapped in. It shines a spotlight on the financial industry and how it has shaped the cost-of-living crisis, as well as why the growing inequality is a danger to everyone.

The memoir will be adapted by screenwriter Gregory Burke (Atomic, Rebus, ’71), a former economics student himself.

The Trading Game has been published in 13 territories and was featured in the Sunday Times best-seller list for eight weeks, with two weeks at number one.

“I’m looking forward to collaborating with Greg and the talented team at Motive on my story and seeing it brought to life on screen,” Stevenson said.

“When I read The Trading Game, Gary’s story seemed to me a perfect encapsulation of the dysfunction at the heart of capitalist society in the 21st century,” Burke commented. “It is about an outsider’s journey through one of the financial institutions at the center of the U.K. and global economy, and the moral and intellectual sacrifices he had to make in order to succeed. But much more than that, it shows how the individual becomes trapped and lays bare how the institution and the financial system it is part of has contributed to the economic and political landscape we are dealing with today. I cannot wait to bring his story to the screen.”

Lila Rawlings, executive producer, added, “Gary’s visceral insights into a world that is far more ominous than we might ever realize, coupled with his defiant desire to change things, make this memoir so ripe for adaptation. And I have no doubt that Gregory will bring this brilliant story to life through compelling scripts that spark humor, sadness, shock, anger (and everything in between), just as the book does.”