Paramount pushes ‘The Big Short’ into awards season

Paramount Pictures announced Tuesday on “Good Morning America” that the film will hit limited big-screens on Dec. 11 and open across the country on Dec. 23, after a premiere at Los Angeles’ AFI Fest in November.

The 2010 bestseller chronicles the lead-up to the United States housing bubble burst in 2008, which contributed in large part to the Great Recession.

To paraphrase Steve Carell’s character in the trailer, it’s the story of how the banks defrauded the American people, and of how a handful of outsiders saw that and put an end to it. Seeing an opportunity, the group essentially bet against the markets and found a way to profit from the crash.

Following four outsiders who each kept one eye trained on the status of the global economy, The Big Short is the name of an organization that the quartet – rounded out by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt – when they unearth a banking loophole that could gift them extraordinary wealth. It is based on a non-fiction book by journalist Michael Lewis who is known for his books Moneyball and Flash Boys. The studio today released the first trailer for Step Brothers and Anchorman director Adam McKay’s first foray into drama, launching the film into the awards season race as a bit of a surprise entry. The adaptation will offer even more people a look at the shady underbelly of high-stakes finance from this particular vantage point. Indeed, it’s shaping up to be a particularly interesting fall for film lovers. The studio has several low-budget horror flicks to release between now and the December 25 opening of the Mark Wahlberg comedy “Daddy’s Home“.