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Hollywood wants to do a movie about the infamous Mark Karpeles and the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange. The Hollywood Reporter is that a script of the scandalous incident is finding its way around film circles. The Gox story recently told in Rolling Stone is being sold to the highest bidder in the Hollywood market by the Creative Artists Agency.
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“Indeed, during my misspent youth, I made a huge, huge mistake. Enough silliness that I found myself locked into custody and brought temporarily placed in the “mousetrap”. This was followed by an investigation of more than a year, which eventually ended in a trial.”~ Mark Karpeles, The Magical Tux Blog
If Hollywood buys this story, it will be the next Bitcoin-related film to hit the industry. The story of the Silk Road was purchased by the 20th Century Fox network and Chernin Entertainment. A Silk Road movie would cover the online black market and the people involved with its day to day operations leading up to its demise. New elements could also be added to this story as well. With the two rogue federal agents who betrayed the public’s trust, and stole a bunch of seized bitcoins, there is a lot of potential for additional substance as the Silk Road saga develops.
Sometimes it can be hard to cast a true story public villain. There are not many A-list actors that resemble the man behind the Magical Tux — and finding such an actor would be a task. But most likely, they will find someone willing to play Karpeles’ part in the movie who looks and acts as cocky as the real Tux did. Many remember the classic scenes of Karpeles appearing in the “Rise of Bitcoin” documentary speaking proudly of his work. He claimed in the film that he was the only person with the authority to operate on Mt. Gox’s security and code. Driving around the bright city lights in Japan, the Gox CEO looked like he was having the time of his life.
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When the Gox movie news hit r/bitcoin — the popular Bitcoin subreddit — many community members voiced their opinions about the upcoming movie deal. Would Karpeles sign the rights over to some of his life, or add to the script? Karpeles wasn’t very talkative towards the community in the months leading up to his arrest; he said a few things on Twitter, but mostly remained silent. No one heard from Magical Tux until he was accused of laundering one million dollars to a registered account in his name. Thus, it is unsure how Karpeles will react to Hollywood’s desire to make a movie out of his life.
“I cannot apologize enough for what happened. While I believe I did everything I could do to prevent this from happening, it still happened. Right now, I’m trying to do my best to cooperate with the bankruptcy process and the ongoing investigation.”
– Former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles
Will the film of the Mt.Gox CEO be a successful sale in the eyes of the Hollywood elite? Only time will tell, but the story does seem interesting enough for a Hollywood film. The biggest question is: Who will play Mark Karpeles? Bitcoin.com reached out to the agencies in Hollywood, but haven’t received any comment as of press time. Understandably so, for the details of the film will most likely be kept hush hush for the time being. As with most biographical movies, its production lasts longer than other movies with barricading legal rights with the involved subjects of the storyline. We will keep our readers informed of this film as it develops.
Will you watch the Mark Karpeles movie? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Inside Bitcoins, Pixbay, and Redmemes
