A day after news broke that Paramount could potentially merge with another studio, due to financial issues and shareholder mistrust, Leonardo DiCaprio has been attached to star and produce in a picture about online casinos in Costa Rica for the Viacom-based studio. Is this announcement convenient timing to assure some people that Paramount can still entice A-list talent?
DiCaprio’s Appian Way production shingle will produce and Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the writers behind the underrated poker film, “Rounders” (with Matt Damon and Ed Norton) will write.
Clearly these guys know their way around a card table (They’ve also written a bunch for Soderbergh in “The Girlfriend Experience” and “Ocean’s Thirteen”). The two writers are also penning, DiCaprio’s New York emergency room project “Beat the Reaper,” but further details on the one the online casino film are scarce. [Variety]