Dev Patel to Star in 'Flash Crash' for New Regency and See-Saw (Exclusive)

The companies won the rights to the upcoming book by Bloomberg journalist Liam Vaughan in a bidding war.

Dev Patel is set to star in Flash Crash, a dramatic thriller based on an upcoming book by Liam Vaughan that See-Saw Films and New Regency have teamed on to adapt.

Jonathan Perera (Miss Sloane) is attached to write the screenplay that will translate to Flash Crash: A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt, and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History. The book is due to be published in May by Doubleday in the U.S. and William Collins in the U.K.

See-Saw and Regency won the rights in a bidding war. See-Saw, the company behind Widows and Lion, will spearhead development, financing and production via its first-look deal with New Regency. Producing will be See-Saw’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman as well as Arnon Milchan of New Regency, which is coming off the $100 million success of Little Women.

Crash tells the incredible true story of Navinder Singh Sarao, described as a brilliant outsider and a man who found a way to beat the stock market, making millions working from a bedroom in his parents’ small suburban home on the outskirts of London. When his focus on outsmarting the corporations coincided with a $1 trillion market drop, he found himself in the crosshairs of a group of U.S. government agents. As the net closed in, Sarao would find himself facing a lifetime in jail in America unless he could find a way to play the system one last time and make himself indispensable to a government intent on making an example of him.

"Navinder Sarao’s story struck us deeply. He’s an unlikely but also complex hero who exposed the manipulations at the heart of the global financial system,” said Canning and Sherman in a statement.

Simon Gillis, See-Saw’s COO of film, as well as New Regency’s Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer will executive produce. Patel is also exec producing.

Patel previously worked with See-Saw when he starred in the company’s acclaimed drama Lion. The actor, who broke through with the international hit Slumdog Millionaire, next appears in The Personal History of David Copperfield and The Green Knight.

Vaughan is an investigative journalist for Bloomberg and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Curtis Brown Group brokered Vaughan’s deal on behalf of Richard Pike of C&W Agency. Perera is represented by UTA, Management SGC and Morris Yorn. Patel is repped by WME, Magnolia Entertainment and Curtis Brown.