Bateman will direct and star in IPO Man, which is inspired by the Wired article "Meet The Man Who Sold His Fate To Investors At $1 A Share". And that title was spot on because it told the story of Mike Merrill, who turned himself into an IPO and sold himself as 100,000 $1 shares of stock. He sold 938 of them, but the remainder which he owned were non-voting shares, which basically meant his entire life was controlled by the other shareholders. Here's how Deadline breaks it down:
Merrill got into an IPO niche that usually allows investors to pony up money for a cut of someone’s future earnings, for instance. Merrill put himself on the block at $1 per share for 100,000 shares, and sold 928 of them. He started as a curiosity, with friends, family members and his girlfriend buying in. He made it interesting in that even though he still owned the majority of himself, he made that non-voting stock, meaning his investors could decide how he would conduct himself professionally, like when he got a thumbs up on his decision to invest $79.63 in a Rwandan chicken farmer. The controls veered into his personal life and he lost his girlfriend, who felt like the loser in a takeover battle. Same majority shareholders then exerted input in his future attempts at a romantic merger (he was even set up with a guy at one point). He was still allowing his investors to call the shot when the article ended.
The script will be written by Yes Man scribes Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster. which should give you an idea Bateman is going for.
