Quote from Clubber Lang:
Does anyone know if the guy who wrote the book is getting a cut of the movie profits?
It is pretty safe to say that he is...
Quote from Maverick74:
Surf, the movie "Boiler Room" from 2001 was loosely based on this.
Actually, not:
"Is the movie based on a true story?
It's based on an experience the screenwriter, Ben Young, had when he was recruited for a boiler room job a few years earlier.
This scene was born out of an experience Younger had five years ago, when he accompanied an acquaintance employed in a boiler room to just such a meeting. "He was my friend's younger brother, and he was driving a new sports car," says Younger. "This guy tells me, 'Look, you work here for a year, you make your million bucks, go to the Bahamas, and then you can write.' I was like, 'Um, I'll check my book, but I'm pretty sure his fits into the game plan.' " The firm, which was busted a few years later, offered him a job.
But instead of living the life, Younger decided to write about it. "I walked in and immediately realized, this is my movie. I mean, you see these kids and you know something is going on. I was expecting guys who went to Dartmouth, but they were all barely out of high school, sitting in a room playing Game Boys. I had already run a campaign at this point, but most of these kids were still working at the gas station," says Younger. "Now it's all over the news, but going back five years ago, day trading, the Internet, none of that existed."
http://nymag.com/nymetro/movies/features/1850/
Wiki also says:
"The film is based on interviews the writer conducted with numerous brokers over a two-year period."