NEW YORK — “21” scribe Peter Steinfeld will adapt the lottery scam memoir “Money for Nothing” for Warner Independent Pictures, Michael De Luca Prods. and Tobey Maguire’s Maguire Entertainment.
WIP optioned Edward Ugel’s wry take on his experiences talking lottery winners into taking lump-sum cash payments against their future earnings — and pocketing a good chunk of change for himself in the process.
De Luca’s Alissa Phillips and ME’s Mark Ross will oversee the project for their companies. WIP creative executive Richard Gold will oversee for his studio.
Ugel’s HarperCollins book, subtitled “One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions,” was published in September.
Next, Steinfeld will adapt the biography of Coinstar founder Herbert T. Ackerman, “8 9/10 Percent Of Nothing.” Following that, Steinfeld is slated to work on a big big-budget thriller about the troubled history of the two-dollar bill.
After that, he’ll write a big-screen version of how I once won four hundred dollars on a video poker machine.
…as written in a text message to a friend while watching the movie: