Big Hollywood Stars Collaborate on Lay the Favorite
With the fascinating rise of online gambling that began in the 1990’s, and continues to see exponential growth to this day, it’s little wonder that Hollywood would decide to make a film about it. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that big name actors bring in big dollars at the box office either.
Thus Focus Films and director Steven Frears are rumored to be seeking out Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones and pop-culture icon Justin Timberlake to head up the cast for the movie ‘Lay the Favorite’.
Bruce Willis has already confirmed that he has taken a role in the film. Willis will render the starring role of Dink, an addictive gambler who has fallen on hard times. The production team is hoping to place Catherine Zeta-Jones in the role of Beth Raymer, the true focal point of the film.
The movie is said to portray the memoirs of Raymer, a casino cocktail waitress who met up with a number of mathematical savants and eventually teamed up to take on the internet sports gambling world.
So where does Justin Timberlake fit into all of this? His presence would be adapted as a bookie in Long Island who runs an offshore sports betting company. Director Frears has already been quoted, speaking candidly as to the desire for an all-star cast featuring Willis, Zeta-Jones and Timberlake. He has stated that should his top picks sign on for the film, production would begin as early as April of this year.
There have been numerous films focusing on gambling – it’s multi-million dollar benefits, and of course the life-altering woes of problem gambling. From Agent 007 James Bond to the MIT Blackjack Team, it’s all been done time and again, but I do believe this is the first film centered round an online gambling fiasco.
It’s about time, really. Online gambling rose up from the ashes of the original Windows platform, first launching around 1994. In those days, connections were mind-numbingly slow and getting disconnected from your dial-up ISP was a constant agitator, which greatly hindered the spread of online gambling’s popularity. But as the years went by, and technology progressed, it became almost mainstream.
By 1998, online sportsbooks, casinos and poker rooms were popping up left and right. Today, there are literally thousands of online gambling sites, and ten times as many stories from players; stories of triumph, stories of default, stories of entire families ripped asunder by a spouse who couldn’t stop, stories of little old ladies winning six- or seven-digit figures and living the lives they’d never dreamed possible.
This is said to be one such story…. Except we may get to watch hairless hottie Bruce Willis, fiery phenom Catherin Zeta-Jones and two-decade teen idol Justin Timberlake bring it al together!
Glamorizing yet another flashy movie about gambling doesn’t seem exciting. Just recycling worn-out tropes of wild betting habits.