Jennifer Garner will star in a cryptocurrency comedy on Netflix

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Jennifer Garner to star in a cryptocurrency comedy on Netflix Original Link: https://portaldobitcoin.uol.com.br/jennifer-garner-vai-estrelar-comedia-sobre-criptomoedas-na-netflix/ Netflix announced in early December that production had begun on “One Attempt Remaining” (“Last Try”), a romantic comedy with a cryptocurrency theme starring American actress Jennifer Garner (‘13 Going on 30’ and ‘Daredevil’) and directed by Kay Cannon (Cinderella).

“Still seems — at least in cinematic portrayals — more marginal than in reality,” said the director of the film “Cold Wallet,” Cutter Hoderine. “Especially now, with the US government so enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies, for better or worse, and Wall Street using Bitcoin as an indicator similar to the S&P 500.”

Part of this is because “until recently, people really didn’t understand,” said Leo Matchett, CEO of the Decentralized Pictures (DCP) film fund. “If you look at movies from the late 90s and early 2000s, they didn’t involve the internet that much,” he said, adding that “when the internet became deeply integrated into society, we started seeing movies about hackers, online activities, and all kinds of things.”

Cryptocurrencies are following a similar trajectory, he argued, but “even today, there aren’t many conventional use cases” in our daily lives. This limits what can be depicted with cryptocurrencies on screen, he said. “Movies reflect our daily lives, and as long as cryptocurrencies are not part of that, they will also remain outside of art.”

In the film “Cold Wallet,” supported by DCP – which focuses on web3 movies – cryptocurrency is “just the method of payment,” Hoderine explained.

It functions as a “value resource” in the film, added Matchett. “It could have been anything; if you look at ‘Die Hard: With a Vengeance,’ they invade the Central Bank and fill dump trucks with gold bars, so the value resource in that film is gold bars.”

The bad reputation of cryptocurrencies

This reveals another aspect of how cryptocurrencies have been portrayed on screen so far: they are generally associated with crime.

In films like “Crypto” (2019) and “Money Plane” (2020), cryptocurrencies are linked to money laundering and criminals. In “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,” a shady deal to obtain a cyber weapon is conducted in cryptocurrencies (in a grotesque scene with a smartphone “decrypting the blockchain,” no less).

Even when not linked to criminal activities, the universe of cryptocurrencies is often portrayed negatively on screen. In “The Quiet Maid” (2023) – a film partially financed by cryptocurrencies and NFTs – it is the wealthy and arrogant family that hangs CryptoPunks on the walls and engages with cryptocurrencies, not the unlucky protagonist of the title.

In conventional action movies like “The Beekeeper” (2024) and “Play Dirty” (2025), “crypto bro” characters occupy a space similar to the antagonistic yuppies of 80s movies.

“They did this to themselves,” said Viviane Ford, director of the web series “Crypto Castle.” “What kind of culture creates something called Pepe, promotes it, and then is proud of it? Or wraps a Lamborghini with Doge?”

Cryptocurrency fans “have turned into memes,” argued Ford. “They became what everyone hates on the internet and then followed that path with everything,” she added. “They ended up with the worst part of the narrative.”

Moreover, she said: “Cryptocurrencies have caused many people to lose money,” due to market crashes caused by the collapse of major platforms. “Cryptocurrencies are gambling and just tried to make that look more attractive,” Ford said.

Considering the representation issues of cryptocurrencies on screen, it is surprising that there has been very little product placement by companies in the sector.

The short film “Cold Wallet” featured a cryptocurrency wallet, but “we received no investment or funding for product placement,” said Matchett. The short “Límite” presented Monero as a symbol of the “potential and unrealized gifts” of the protagonist, after an on-chain proposal was approved by the cryptocurrency community.

The lack of product placement of crypto products is partly due to the fact that cryptocurrency market cycles are out of sync with the film development cycle, suggested Matchett.

“It’s all or nothing,” he said. Cryptocurrency companies “need to capitalize on the market boom to accumulate resources and save them to survive the winter.” Films, on the other hand, take “years to make,” meaning that “a company involved at the start of the development cycle may not be around at the end.”

Changing perceptions of cryptocurrencies

There are signs that the tide is turning. Some productions are beginning to explore the technology in more detail, such as “One Attempt Remaining,” which uses the mechanics of cryptocurrency wallets and seed phrases as a central plot element.

Meanwhile, Ford’s own “Crypto Castle” adopts a more nuanced view of the crypto community; she spent four years living among the “cryptocurrencies” in the house that gives the project its name, in San Francisco, transforming her experiences first into a stand-up show and then into a web series.

“I wanted all the characters on screen to be engaging,” she said, “which is really hard when you’re playing four guys from the crypto world.”

“Originally, the idea of blockchain, decentralized power, and international payments without waiting for banks was the main reason people were doing this,” she added. “But what quickly catches on are silly memes and a 13-year-old boy who gets rich and then closes the account because he doesn’t know what to do with the money. And that’s funny, let’s be honest.”

“There is certainly incredible potential” in cryptocurrencies, said Matchett, adding that the film world has yet to produce “success stories” that showcase the technology.

“People still don’t fully understand it, and there’s not enough time in a movie to really cover it, unless it’s a documentary,” he said.

Finally, he argued, “some creative genius will find a really simple way to do this in a short period of time and then link that narrative to a war between centralized and decentralized systems.”

Matchett concluded by stating that “cryptocurrencies will be an important part of the global economy in the coming decades. And then they’ll be in all heist and adventure movies.”