Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale set for credit crunch movie from Moneyball writer

The Big Short is based on a novel by bestselling author Michael Lewis

Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale are in talks to star in The Big Short (Getty Images)

Brad Pitt is set to team up with Christian Bale and Ryan Gosling for the movie adaptation of a Michael Lewis credit crunch novel.

The three Hollywood actors are in talks to star in The Big Short, based on bestselling book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, about the Noughties credit and housing bubbles that resulted in the global financial crisis.

Pitt will produce The Big Short with his Plan B company after his success with Oscar-nominated Lewis adaptation Moneyball in 2011.

It is as yet unknown what roles the cast members will take, who indeed who else may join the film. Director Adam McKay is believed to have signed on in 2012, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Lewis book The Blind Side was also made into a 2009 film, with Sandra Bullock winning a best actress Oscar for her performance.

Gosling is currently filming Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, while Bale was lined up to play late Apple founder Steve Jobs in the seemingly doomed biopic recently picked up by Universal.

Pitt is shooting romantic drama By the Sea with wife Angelina Jolie in Malta.