A new feature film titled “Satoshi,” about Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, is set to be directed by Jason Zada (“The Forest, “Terrarium”) with backing from former NBA champion and tech investor Tristan Thompson. The plan is to start shooting in Saudi Arabia and Los Angeles in spring 2027.
Tristan Thompson — who is known in the tabloids for sharing two children with Khloé Kardashian — will produce “Satoshi” alongside Enderby Entertainment principals Rick Dugdale and Dan Petrie Jr.
“Satoshi” is among the first projects under a multi-picture deal between Enderby Entertainment and Saudi Arabia’s Yellow Camel Studios production company. The plan is to shoot the film at JAX Film Studios, a state-of-the-art production complex in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh.
The creator of Bitcoin, whose identity and invention remain secret, is also the subject of the Doug Liman-directed film “Bitcoin” (aka “Killing Satoshi”) which has a cast including Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher. “Bitcoin,” which is currently in post, has sparked controversy for using AI to create the movie’s sets and lighting, having been reportedly filmed in just 20 days inside a “gray box” studio in London.
Also on board “Satoshi” as producers are BDE Ventures founder and Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies pioneer Brian D. Evans, as well as actors Aaron Arnold (“Splitting Image”) and Austin Arnold (“Splitting Image,” “Altcoin Daily”), according to a statement from Enderby Entertainment.
“Satoshi” will examine the origins of Bitcoin, which was created in 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis as a way to circumvent traditional financial institutions.
Zada and Nate Atkins (“Take This Lollipop”) partnered on the shooting script, based on an original screenplay by Cam Cannon (“Zero Contact”). Zada, who is the founder of the AI-native studio Secret Level, is currently in production on the AI hybrid horror feature “Terrarium.”
However, while AI will be used as a tool in making “Satoshi,” AI is “not the main focus of how the film will be made,” according to a rep for the film. “This is a traditional film production, including on-location filming, etc.,” the rep stated.
The “Satoshi” logline reads: “A troubled FBI agent partners with a charismatic defense attorney under federal pressure to unmask Bitcoin’s elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto — plunging into a high-stakes crypto thriller of government overreach, personal demons, and a mystery that still defies the world.”
“Bitcoin wasn’t born in a boardroom. It was released as open-source code by someone who chose to disappear,” Dugdale said in a statement. referring to the ongoing effort to unmask the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the bitcoin white paper which laid the theoretical foundations for modern digital currencies.
“We’re not interested in a sanitized version of that story,” he added. “We’re bringing in people who understand the code, the culture and why it mattered from the beginning.”
“Jason has been pushing the edges of how films get made, and with the support of the Saudi kingdom we have the room to do this properly,” the “Satoshi” producer continued.
Commented Thompson: “We are entering a new financial era where money moves at the speed of the internet, value flows seamlessly across borders and entirely new systems of ownership and exchange are emerging. Satoshi sparked a movement that is fundamentally reshaping how the world thinks about wealth, freedom and financial power.”
Evans underlined that “for years, the traditional media has misunderstood Bitcoin and the people who built it,” and pointed out that this film “isn’t about unmasking Satoshi. It’s about getting the narrative and story right for the world to finally see.”
Enderby Entertainment was founded in 2006 and has previously produced “Blackway,” starring Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles and Ray Liotta, which premiered at Venice in 2015; Ben Kingsley-starrer “An Ordinary Man”; “Night Hunter Henry” with Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley and Alexandra Daddario; and the three-film anthology based on Swedish writer Hakan Nesser’s “Intrigo” trilogy of novels.
Zada is repped by UTA and Dante DeSario at Collage.
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