Tristan Thompson Produces 'Satoshi', a Bitcoin Origin Thriller for Jason Zada

By Daniel Okafor

Jason Zada will direct "Satoshi", a thriller about Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, with former NBA champion Tristan Thompson producing. Shooting starts in Saudi Arabia and Los Angeles in spring 2027.

Thompson, the tech investor better known to tabloid readers for sharing two children with Khloé Kardashian, produces alongside Enderby Entertainment principals Rick Dugdale and Dan Petrie Jr. The film falls under a multi-picture deal between Enderby and Saudi Arabia's Yellow Camel Studios, and will shoot at JAX Film Studios, a state-of-the-art production complex in Riyadh.

Also producing: BDE Ventures founder and cryptocurrency pioneer Brian D. Evans, plus actors Aaron Arnold ("Splitting Image") and Austin Arnold ("Splitting Image", "Altcoin Daily"), according to a statement from Enderby Entertainment.

What is the film about?

The logline: "A troubled FBI agent partners with a charismatic defense attorney under federal pressure to unmask Bitcoin's elusive creator, Satoshi Nakamoto — plunging into a high-stakes crypto thriller of government overreach, personal demons, and a mystery that still defies the world."

Bitcoin dates to 2008, created in the wake of the global financial crisis as a way to circumvent traditional financial institutions. Its author's identity remains unknown. Nakamoto wrote the white paper (the theoretical foundation of modern digital currencies) and then chose to disappear — a fact Dugdale leaned on in his statement.

"Bitcoin wasn't born in a boardroom. It was released as open-source code by someone who chose to disappear," Dugdale said. "We're not interested in a sanitized version of that story. We're bringing in people who understand the code, the culture and why it mattered from the beginning."

He added: "Jason has been pushing the edges of how films get made, and with the support of the Saudi kingdom we have the room to do this properly."

How much AI is involved?

The question hangs over any Zada project. He founded Secret Level, an AI-native studio, and is currently in production on the AI hybrid horror feature "Terrarium". He co-wrote the "Satoshi" shooting script with Nate Atkins ("Take This Lollipop"), based on an original screenplay by Cam Cannon ("Zero Contact").

A film rep, however, insists AI is "not the main focus of how the film will be made". "This is a traditional film production, including on-location filming, etc.," the rep stated. Given the industry's current AI anxiety, that clarification was hardly accidental.

Who said what?

Thompson framed the project in sweeping terms: "We are entering a new financial era where money moves at the speed of the internet, value flows seamlessly across borders and entirely new systems of ownership and exchange are emerging. Satoshi sparked a movement that is fundamentally reshaping how the world thinks about wealth, freedom and financial power."

Evans took aim at the press: "For years, the traditional media has misunderstood Bitcoin and the people who built it." The film, he said, "isn't about unmasking Satoshi. It's about getting the narrative and story right for the world to finally see."

Is there competition?

Yes. Doug Liman's "Bitcoin" (aka "Killing Satoshi"), currently in post-production, covers the same mystery with Casey Affleck, Pete Davidson, Gal Gadot and Isla Fisher. That film courted controversy for using AI to build its sets and lighting, reportedly shot in just 20 days inside a "gray box" studio in London.

Enderby, founded in 2006, has form: "Blackway" with Anthony Hopkins premiered at Venice in 2015, and its credits include "An Ordinary Man" with Ben Kingsley, "Night Hunter" with Henry Cavill, and the three-film "Intrigo" anthology based on Håkan Nesser's novels. Zada is repped by UTA and Dante DeSario at Collage.

Two studios, one ghost, and spring 2027 to see which version of Nakamoto's vanishing the market rewards.