Poker and celebrities have been intertwined since the boom occurred in the mid-2000s, and as a result the partnership has spawned more than a few movies. The latest project comes from noted screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who is working on a movie called “Molly’s Game” which is based on the memoir written by Molly Bloom. He is enlisting some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to join him and the rumors are circulating that one of those potential stars is quite fond of poker himself.
Michael Cera has been reported to be in talks to join the cast of “Molly’s Game” as one of the lead roles. He has been on record as being a poker enthusiast, saying that he often plays while on the set of his movies. He also plays cash games with friends from time to time and hits the poker tables at casinos. His co-stars say that Cera is quite the poker player, even though he is modest about it, and his interest in the game should be able to help his performance.
Cera, of course, rose to fame on the cult television hit “Arrested Development”, and he has starred in films such as “Superbad”, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and “This Is the End”. If Cera were to join this cast, he would be working with the likes of Jessica Chastain, who won a Golden Globe for “Zero Dark Thirty”, who is playing the title character of Molly Bloom. Also working on the project is Idris Elba, who is well known in television with “Luther” and “The Wire”, and in film with “Pacific Rim” and “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Sorkin himself has quite the resume. He was the producer of the Emmy-winning “The West Wing” and wrote the Golden Globe-winning screenplay for “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Network”. Needless to say, this project has a lot of star power behind it.
“Molly’s Game” is focused on Bloom, who was a skier who started up one of the biggest underground poker games in Hollywood. You name the A-list celebrity and they probably played at Bloom’s games: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, as well as Edward Norton (Damon and Norton starred in another poker movie, “Rounders”, which was about high-stakes poker games) were just a few of the names involved with Bloom. She was then investigated by the FBI and that’s where it all went downhill. Her story is well known in the poker community but where this project really took off is from her memoirs. They were a major hit and STX Entertainment bought the rights to it, then bringing in Sorkin to turn it into a film. He first went after Chastain and Elba, and now hopefully Cera will be in the mix. Production on the film is supposed to begin in November.
It will be interesting to see if they manage to finalize a deal with Cera. Regardless, Molly Bloom’s story is sure to be a hit in the poker world and has plenty of crossover appeal to the casual crowd.