VARIETY: ‘Better Call Saul’ Co-Creator Developing Wall Street Movie for HBO (EXCLUSIVE)
Peter Gould is on the trail of another story of Wall Street run amok for HBO.
The “Better Call Saul” co-creator/exec producer is in the early stages of developing a telepic for HBO based on Guy Lawson’s 2012 nonfiction book “Octopus: Sam Israel, the Secret Market and Wall Street’s Wildest Con.”
The HBO Films project will revolve around a colorful cast of rogues and schemers who create an audacious hedge fund fraud and then go on a wild search for “the Octopus,” a secret and elite market that controls the world financial system. Gould is set to write and direct the telepic, as well as exec produce.
Gould previously wrote the 2011 HBO movie “Too Big to Fail,” adapted from Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book about key players in the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the onset of the 2008-09 global financial crisis. “Too Big to Fail” earned a bevy of award nominations for HBO. Gould won a Writers Guild Award for adapted longform screenplay.
Gould is in the midst of steering plans for season two of “Breaking Bad” prequel drama “Better Call Saul” with co-creator Vince Gilligan. “Saul” bowed earlier this month to strong reviews and ratings for AMC. Gould earned back-to-back drama series Emmy Awards in 2013 and 2014 as an exec producer of “Breaking Bad.”
Joe Millner, Gould’s rep at Larchmont Literary Agency, is on board to exec produce “Octopus.” Gould is also repped by CAA.