Amazon Prime Video has today announced it has greenlit an untitled docuseries from Academy Award winner Adam McKay (The Big Short), Will Ferrell (Elf) and Adam Davidson (co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money) and hosted by Kal Penn (Designated Survivor). This new documentary series will give Prime members extraordinary insight into the global economy and its comedic eccentricities, all through a sardonic lens unique to McKay.
Penn, former White House Associate Director of Public Engagement, will take viewers around the world to meet the geniuses, madmen and hucksters who make the decisions—and investments—that change our lives. From cryptocurrency and money laundering to death and corruption, the series will explore how money, greed and power affect our hyper-connected world.
“Adam McKay is well known for finding the humour and absurdity in mind-blowing true stories, and we’re excited to bring that to Prime members with this series,” said Heather Schuster, Head of Unscripted, Amazon Originals. “As with all of our unscripted series, we are committed to providing our customers with unprecedented access—this time to the fascinating, and often elusive back rooms of global wealth and industry.”
“Adam Davidson is one of the more brilliant and funny minds out there,” said McKay. “After collaborating with him on The Big Short I jumped at the chance to continue trying to make economics and finance accessible to a wide audience.”
“Look, I’m terrible at math and really good at sophomoric humour (that means dick jokes, kids!), so the idea that we can explore economics around the world by visiting places like a dildo factory in California piqued my interest,” said Penn. “To have an opportunity to explore the world while we combine the serious with the bizarre with Adam and Will is super exciting.”
The series is executive produced by Ferrell, McKay, Kevin Messick, Eli Holzman (Project Runway) Aaron Saidman (Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies) and Aliyah Silverstein (Hacking Robot), and produced by Intellectual Property Corporation and Gary Sanchez Productions. Davidson is a Co-Executive Producer, and Penn is a Consulting Producer.
