By
Mayowa Adebajo
February 21st, 2024
In 2019, the world will see Crypto — a cybercrime thriller that focuses on money laundering. Alexis Bledel, Beau Knapp, Kurt Russell, and other Hollywood celebrities will star in the movie.
The entertainment industry loves headline-relevant stories, but the decentralized financial concept of cryptocurrency has not gained much popularity in film and television yet. To make up for it, a money laundering thriller titled Crypto is currently shooting. Alexis Bledel, known for her performance in the hit television show Gilmore Girls, Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds), Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight), Luke Hemsworth (Westworld), Jeremie Harris (Legion) and Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) have signed on to star in the movie.
Exclusive: @alexisbledel, Kurt Russell, Beau Knapp to star in money laundering thriller 'Crypto' https://t.co/dEiU24LGxt pic.twitter.com/VdTtXru4i7
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 15, 2018
Directed by John Stalberg Jr., the movie is described as a tonal amalgam of The Firm and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film enters on a young anti-money laundering agent, played by Beau Knapp, to investigate a case in his remote agrarian-centric New York hometown, where his father (Russell) and brother (Hemsworth) are struggling to maintain their family farm in a changing economic landscape. The agent quickly finds himself enmeshed in a dangerous underworld populated by a mysterious art dealer (Bledel), a crypto-currency enthusiast turned cyber-sleuth (Harris) and a corrupt accountant doing the bidding of ruthless clients (Kartheiser).
Crypto is produced by Yale Prods.’ Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman alongside David Frigerio. Crypto’s producers are calling it “a thriller in the vein of The Firm and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”.
Stalberg, the director of Crypto, said:
“I am overjoyed to be working with such an incredible cast to bring this timely, thrilling story to life. Beau is incredibly talented, and seeing him bring this character to life opposite talent like Alexis, Kurt, Luke, Jeremie and Vincent has been a dream come true.”
For Stalberg, Crypto is the second prominent work. His debut, High School, starring Adrien Brody and Colin Hanks, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and quickly gained a cult following upon its theatrical release.
Jordan Yale Levine added:
“Cryptocurrency has captured the attention and imagination of consumers and entrepreneurs all over the world but has never been explored in film in such a nuanced and exciting way.”
Worldwide rights for Crypto are represented by Film Mode Entertainment. The movie is set to come out in 2019.
Crypto is not the first film that has taken an interest in cryptocurrencies. In 2016, a Vietnamese movie called Bitcoin Heist profiled a team of elite hackers planning a crypto-heist. The movie involved an international, high-stakes manhunt.
Moreover, last year, the Coen brothers – the filmmakers behind movies like The Big Lebowski and No Country For Old Men – were working on a movie about the Silk Road, the now-defunct dark market that used bitcoin as its central currency.