Comedy writer-director and long-time Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay is the surprise choice to head the serious matter of bringing the story behind the global financial crisis to the big screen.

McKay, whose credits include the two Anchorman films, Talladega Nights and The Other Guys, has signed on to adapt and direct the best-selling book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Chronicles, about the subprime crisis which destabilised the world's economy.

Long-time Will Ferrell collaborator and Anchoman director Adam McKay is the surprise choice to adapt and direct the best-selling book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Chronicles. Credit:Gemma LaMana

The book's author Michael Lewis, acclaimed as one of the world's best financial journalists, already has a track record in successful movie adaptations, with previous books Moneyball and The Blind Side scoring big box-office numbers and several Oscar nods, including a statue for the latter's star Sandra Bullock.