Billionaire Ken Griffin freaks out about the movie “Dumb Money.”
Ken Griffin has a lot to think about when it comes to “Dumb Money,” including the way the star-studded film portrays his habits when it comes to expensive art.
On the bright side, the Miami-based hedge fund titan’s lawyers said they “appreciate artistic endeavors.”
They praised the casting of “Parks & Recreation” star Nick Offerman as “inspired” in the role of Griffin.
On the other hand, the idea that “Ken bought paintings by de Kooning and Picasso to keep them away from Steve Cohen” – the hedge fund mogul who owns the New York Mets – was completely false, Griffin’s lawyers wrote to the Sony Pictures legal team last month .
“In fact, they were a de Kooning and a Jackson Pollock, which he bought for reasons that had nothing to do with Steve Cohen (obviously someone didn’t do the research),” reads a letter obtained by On The Money.
The film, based on the book “The Antisocial Network” by Ben Mezrich, focuses on the retail traders who banded together on Reddit’s Wall Street Bets page to drive up GameStop’s shares and the hedge funds to put pressure on those who are short selling the stock.
More broadly, Griffin — worth an estimated $35 billion, according to Forbes — was concerned last month that the film “revives and reinforces this much-debunked collusion narrative” that Citadel and Robinhood colluded to briefly shut down trading in GameStop shares stop, Griffin’s lawyers wrote.
It’s about a scene in which Griffin talks to Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev after trading on the Robinhood platform has stopped.
In response, sources close to the “Dumb Money” producers – whose film, starring Seth Rogen, Pete Davison, Paul Dano and Shailene Woodley, is set to hit theaters on Friday – note that Griffin’s lawyers appeared to be working on a script last month that was more than a year old.
They note that a scene showing a conversation between Griffin and Tenev is not included in the final version.
Similarly, Griffin’s legal team filed a complaint last month that the film grossly exaggerated his golfing habits.
“The idea that Ken always wants to be on the golf course, even though it is one of the last places you would see him (he golfs once a year),” reads a letter obtained by On The Money.
According to sources, the filmmakers actually never captured footage of Griffin playing golf. Instead, he is portrayed as a tennis player.
Puck was report first News that Griffin was quietly fighting the film. Citadel did not respond to a request for comment. Sony declined to comment.
Other sources close to the film are confused that Griffin even commented on it.
The core of the script – written by financial journalists Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo – is about how the little guy can succeed in the markets.
“The film really isn’t about him,” a source said. “He assumes he can control everything.”
