‘Wonder Boy’: Film based on Tony Hsieh’s life in development
Tony Hsieh’s star-crossed life often seemed pulled from a movie. And now, Hsieh’s story is being made into a feature film.
A movie is in development based on the upcoming Hsieh biography “Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley” by Wall Street Journal’s Angel Au-Yeung and Forbes Magazine’s David Jeans. Published by Henry Holt & Company, the book is due April 25.
The film is from entertainment manager and entrepreneur Scooter Braun’s SB Projects and actor/fillmmaker Justin Chon, whose projects include “Blue Bayou” and “Gook.”
According to a Hollywood Reporter report and the project’s description, the film will track Hsieh’s life as “an American internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist who grew up in Northern California, attended Harvard University and went on to become the CEO of Zappos, moving the world headquarters to Las Vegas where he restored much of the historic downtown and became famous in the tech world for his ‘happiness’ work culture before his tragic death in a mysterious house fire in 2020. He was 46 years old.”
James Shin and Scott Mason join Braun and Chon on the production team. SB Projects has released the final season of the FX comedy “Dave,” and also backs the reggaeton Nextix feature “Neon.” Au-Yeung and Jeans are executive producers.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.