Jim Grant is mentioned in the book and the film version of The Big Short. One of the characters admits he didn't predict the housing crash, he just read about it in Grant's Interest Rate Observer.
The project was written as a 4-part limited series, but without the funds to complete it, the first 2 episodes were combined and released as the feature The Housing Bubble in 2019. Sales in over 70 countries allowed the trilogy to be completed, with The Fall of 2008 coming out in 2024 and The Bigger Bubble in 2025.
The people who predicted the crash were interviewed from 2011-2013. The first film looks backward, first at the causes of the housing bubble from 1997-2008 and then at how other bubbles and crashes played out over the past century. The 2nd film details the bailouts and stimulus that followed, leading into the 3rd film covering the next 10 years of secret bailouts that only led to a greater crash.
The people who predicted the crash were interviewed from 2011-2013. The first film looks backward, first at the causes of the housing bubble from 1997-2008 and then at how other bubbles and crashes played out over the past century. The 2nd film details the bailouts and stimulus that followed, leading into the 3rd film covering the next 10 years of secret bailouts that only led to a greater crash.
When Jimmy Morrison first started traveling the continent to shoot these interviews, he slept on people's couches or in his Pontiac Sunfire at Walmart or Best Buy. The car can be seen in the first film: The Housing Bubble.
He would wash his hair in gas station bathrooms and put on a suit just a few minutes before interviewing some of the most successful investors in the world.
He would wash his hair in gas station bathrooms and put on a suit just a few minutes before interviewing some of the most successful investors in the world.
None of the crew lives in the same city. Writer/Director Jimmy Morrison lives in Iowa City, IA. Editor Matthew Hartman lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, NY and Evergreen, CO. Composer Jake Dilley lives in North Hollywood, CA.
Writer/Director Jimmy Morrison drove over 35,000 miles to interview the people who predicted the housing crash.