DiCaprio, “Rounders” Scribes Sign On For Online Poker Movie

Jason Kirk | June 17, 2009

The scribes behind the seminal poker film Rounders are teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio for another poker flick, this time centering on online poker.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien, the two screenwriters whose late 90s movie gave the poker world characters like Mike McDermott, Worm, Joey Knish and Teddy KGB, will pen the script for an as-yet-untitled poker picture to be released by Paramount Pictures. DiCaprio, who is currently developing another film with the two writers, is attached to star in the film.

Details on the production are scant at the moment, but Variety says the plot will revolve around “the online casino industry in Costa Rica.” The Central American nation has been home to multiple online gambling businesses in the last decade.

While Koppelman and Levien have enjoyed recent success as the screenwriters for Ocean’s Thirteen, DiCaprio’s last few projects have been sluggish at the box office. And given that poker films like Lucky You and Deal have proven to be poor draws in recent years, there would seem to be little hope that the project could break Leo’s slump. But if there’s anyone to team up with to produce a poker movie, it’s the two Rounders writers.

Though Rounders was far from a box office smash when it first hit theaters in 1999, grossing only $22.9 million, the film did receive generally positive reviews upon its release, however, helping it develop a cult following from which many of online poker’s earliest enthusiasts were born. If Koppelman, Levien, and DiCaprio can work a little magic, poker might have another cult favorite on its hands.

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