We like our weird in Portland. It’s true. We’re so weird, in fact, that we stole our “Keep Portland Weird” slogan from Austin, Texas. That’s how weird we are. So when a guy decides to sell shares in himself and allow shareholders to decide his fate, we’re like “Yeah. That happened.” But when Jason Bateman enters the picture, we have to take pause. Because, yeah. Shit just got weird.
Fox Searchlight has acquired Meet The Man Who Sold His Fate To Investors At $1 A Share, a Wired Magazine article by Joshua Davis that will be crafted into a starring and directing vehicle for Jason Bateman to play a man who found a novel commodity for a public offering: himself. It created a host of problems for the actual guy, Mike Merrill, when shareholders demanded control over life decisions like whether or not to have a vasectomy, or even whether he should move in with his longtime girlfriend (and minority shareholder).
Jason Bateman! I mean, he used to be on Silver Spoons. Hell, he was like the Alfonso Ribeiro to Ricky Schroeder’s Fresh Prince.
What’s that? Arrested Development…? Never heard of it. Silver Spoons, baby!
Anyway, yeah KmikeyM isn’t just a Portland property anymore. Hollywood has a little piece of him, as well.
For more information, see Jason Bateman Is ‘IPO Man;’ He’ll Direct, Star As Man Who Sold Stock In Self.
(Image courtesy Sam Javanrouh. Used under Creative Commons.)
Comments are closed.
How Portlandish!
Potentially the best comment in the history of this blog ^^^
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Alfonso Ribeiro was the Alfonso Ribeiro of “Silver Spoons.”. He played Rick’s best friend, while Bateman was more of a nemesis. AND Ribeiro was in 3x more episodes than Bateman (67 to 21, according to IMDb).
Seriously, being on “Silver Spoons,” is nothing compared to taking over the mantle of Teen Wolf from Michael J. Fox… who just happened to play Jason’s older sister’s older brother on “Family Ties.”
[…] Okay, it just got weird: Jason Bateman to direct, star as Portland’s Mike Merrill, the publicly tr… (siliconflorist.com) […]
Mad props for the Silver Spoons reference, Rick. I know the theme song by heart and sing it (in my head) at least weekly. WE’RE SILVER SPOONS TOGETHER, YOU AND I…
Also, I was once propositioned by a wealthy person in the music industry to invest in me personally. As in, a slice of whenever, whatever I might become. I took it as a compliment and thankfully had no idea such a thing was even possible… which is good, because I would probably have ended up having to do weird stuff.
Anyhow, not only a weird Portland story, but a good premise for a Jason Bateman film in my book.
God speed, weirdos.