DiCaprio Teams with ‘Rounders’ Scripters for Online Poker Movie

The Hollywood Reporter brings word Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star in an untitled pitch from Brian Koppelman and David Levien (Rounders) that takes place in the world of Costa Rica-based online casinos. DiCaprio’s Appian Way cohort Jennifer Davisson Killoran is producing.

Unfortunately this news comes with absolutely nothing else to tell. For me just DiCaprio’s involvement in the project as an actor is the only reason I posted the small blurb, but I haven’t been shy of declaring my enjoyment in DiCaprio’s work in the past.

If you’ll remember back in October 2008 I posted the article headlined “Leonardo DiCaprio Has Been Solid for Six Straight Years ” only three days after the release of Body of Lies, a film I seem to be in the minority when it comes to enjoyment — so be it.

The THR article does say DiCaprio, Koppelman and Levien are teaming to also adapt “Beat the Reaper” based on Josh Bazell’s novel described as a darkly comic thriller centering on a hitman turned medical intern. Here’s the complete description from Amazon:

Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he’s the last person you want to see in your hospital room.

Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown’s new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person …

Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper.

Spattered in adrenaline-fueled action and bone-saw-sharp dialogue, BEAT THE REAPER is a debut thriller so utterly original you won’t be able to guess what happens next, and so shockingly entertaining you won’t be able to put it down.

I mention this as a footnote only because it seems like if it were to get made we wouldn’t see it for another two or three years so don’t get too excited just yet.

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