Director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan, who last teamed on The Departed, are developing The Gambler at Paramount Pictures.
The project, which they want Leonardo DiCaprio to star in, is a remake of the 1974 movie starring James Caan as an English professor with a gambling addiction. Irwin Winkler, who produced the original, will again act as producer of the new film.
In the original, Caan’s character falls into debt to the mob for $40,000 but seems to relish the thrill of gambling against the long shot. As a professor of literature at a New York University, he is in over his head, until his mother gives him some money which he quickly tries to increase in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the odds never allow him to win or fully recover, so his future is in the mob’s hands.
Caan received a Golden Globe nomination for best actor for his performance. Lauren Hutton and Paul Sorvino co-starred.
The movie is not related to the Kenny Rogers-starring TV movies from the ’80s and ’90s.
