For a while now, Stephen Frears has been putting together an adaptation of Lay The Favourite, based on the gambling memoir by Beth Raymer. He’s already got Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joshua Jackson and Rebecca Hall onboard, and now Variety reports he may have another star, Vince Vaughn.
Lay The Favorite follows a young woman (Hall) who starts out as a cocktail waitress but ends up as part of the high stakes world of sports betting. She gets involved with two older men, including successful professional gambler Dink Heimowitz (Willis) and a group of 20-something maths geeks, who think they can fix the Vegas sportsbook system and win big. Screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis has desribed the geeks as, A less violent, less sketchy version of the mob.
Deadline reports Vaughn will play a Long Island bookie, Bernard “Rosie” Rose, that Beth Raymer once worked for, and who had made $2.5 million in the industry by the time he was 19. This role was previously said to be going to Justin Timberlake, but presumably he’s no longer in contention.
A few months ago the film was in trouble, as Focus Features didn’t think Frears had lined up enough star names, despite already having Willis and Hall. He’s certainly lining them up now, so hopefully it’ll get the go ahead.