With all the projects he’s planning to produce or star in (or both), nobody can accuse Leonardo DiCaprio of being lazy. And he clearly knows who he wants to work with: director Martin Scorsese, yet again.
The duo are considering a remake of 1974 James Caan drama THE GAMBLER, to be written by William Monahan, reuniting the trio after the Oscar-winning THE DEPARTED (itself a remake, of the Hong Kong cop thriller INFERNAL AFFAIRS).
The slow-burn original (based on a Dostoevsky story) had Caan as a professor with a considerable gambling addiction, which leads to owing a ton of scratch to a mob-run underground casino and the downward spiral of self-destructive behavior as he tries to pay it back. The movie also featured Lauren Hutton, Scorsese’s GOODFELLAS gangster Paul Sorvino, and an early appearance by James Woods.
As you surely know, Leo and Marty worked together on GANGS OF NEW YORK, SHUTTER ISLAND, THE AVIATOR and the aforementioned THE DEPARTED. Next for DiCaprio (who just finished Clint Eastwood’s J. EDGAR) is THE GREAT GATSBY and a villainous turn in Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED.
Meanwhile, Scorsese has (among other things) been trying to get together with his other frequent collaborator Robert DeNiro for the mob hitman movie THE IRISHMAN.