--- title: Michael Lewis: Flash Boys Won't Be Adapted With Asian Lead description: Michael Lewis says Hollywood is hesitant to cast a film with an Asian lead actor. canonical: https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-06T21:46:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:18:48.619Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Author Says Hollywood Won't Adapt His Book With Asian Lead og:description: The Big Short author Michael Lewis says the Flash Boys adaptation is floundering og:url: https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d91a99e5250c08b/6988dcbafb4eacdf008939cd/michael-lewis-flash-boys.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Power Lunch og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Author Says Hollywood Won't Adapt His Book With Asian Lead twitter:description: The Big Short author Michael Lewis says the Flash Boys adaptation is floundering twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d91a99e5250c08b/6988dcbafb4eacdf008939cd/michael-lewis-flash-boys.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Author Says Hollywood Won't Adapt His Book Because It Has an Asian Lead > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Sep 6, 2017 9:46 PM UTC  Michael Lewis, bestselling author of "Moneyball" and "Flash Boys," in an interview at the NYSE on March 23, 2015. Michael Lewis, bestselling author of "Moneyball" and "Flash Boys," in an interview at the NYSE on March 23, 2015.Adam Jeffery—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images by [Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly Sep 6, 2017 9:46 PM UTC From _The Big Short_ to _Moneyball,_ Michael Lewis is no stranger to having his books adapted into films. But the author says that it’s unlikely his 2014 book _Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt_ will ever make it to the big screen — because Hollywood is hesitant to cast a film with an Asian lead actor. Lewis [spoke](https://www.c-span.org/video/?432540-17/undoing-project&start=2788) Saturday at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., where he told _Washington Post_ writer Joel Achenbach that despite past Hollywood interest, a potential _Flash Boys_ movie is unlikely to get off the ground because his main character, real-life IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama, is of Asian descent. “Right now it’s close to dead,” Lewis told the audience. “The problem was revealed in the Sony hack. There were emails back and forth about how impossible it was to make a movie with an Asian lead. The problem was Brad Katsuyama. They’ve gotten to the point where they’re nervous about making an Asian guy a white guy. Decades ago, they weren’t. They would have just done that. But they don’t think there’s a well-enough known Asian male actor. Which I think is crazy.” Back in 2014, Aaron Sorkin [signed on](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/aaron-sorkin-adapt-michael-lewis-713645) to write a film version of _Flash Boys,_ but the project has since fizzled. _Flash Boys_ follows a group of Wall Street employees, including Katsuyama, who discovered and exposed the controversial practice of high-frequency trading. Lewis’ comments come as the scrutiny over Hollywood whitewashing have mounted, with projects like _Aloha, Doctor Strange,_ and _Ghost in the Shell_ coming under fire for casting white actors as Asian characters. In August, Ed Skrein [left the upcoming _Hellboy_ reboot](http://ew.com/movies/2017/08/28/ed-skrein-leaves-hellboy-whitewashing/) after the backlash over the fact that he was cast to play a Japanese-American character. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/"},"headline":"Author Says Hollywood Won't Adapt His Book Because It Has an Asian Lead","datePublished":"2017-09-06T21:46:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:18:48.619Z","description":"The Big Short author Michael Lewis says the Flash Boys adaptation is floundering","url":"https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d91a99e5250c08b/6988dcbafb4eacdf008939cd/michael-lewis-flash-boys.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Devan Coggan / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d91a99e5250c08b/6988dcbafb4eacdf008939cd/michael-lewis-flash-boys.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Power Lunch","caption":"Power Lunch","creditText":"Adam Jeffery—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4930412/flash-boys-michael-lewis-asian-lead/","name":"Author Says Hollywood Won't Adapt His Book Because It Has an Asian Lead"}}]}] ```