This morning, STX dropped the trailer for Molly’s Game, which isn’t a sequel or gender-flipped version of the Stephen King classic Gerald’s Game like we thought it was. It’s actually the directorial debut of West Wing scribe and “please-don’t-describe-me-as-the-Newsroom or-Studio-60” creator Aaron Sorkin, who (of course) also wrote the screenplay. You may also remember his previous cinematic efforts: The David Fincher-directed, stone-cold masterpiece The Social Network, and the Danny Boyle-directed wet-fart Steve Jobs, which came and went. This looks like an amalgamation of the two, with some poker, Jessica Chastain, and Idris Elba thrown in for good measure. Who knows if it’ll be good?
Peep it:
We’re not exactly sure who really wants to see Sorkin do his best Fincher impression for two hours and some change, but we’re really happy that you, the one person who thought that might be a good idea, will get to see this film. If you didn’t know who was behind the camera, you’d probably say something like this: Chastain looks solid as always, Elba’s accent is totally bizarre here, and we’re desperately excited to see more Michael Cera in the wake of his earth-shattering appearance as Wally Brando on Twin Peaks. Seriously, though, we’re going to draw up betting lines on what modern benign convenience or group of people Sorkin’ll throw his cranky verbiage at this time around.
Three to one odds that it’s about the millennial work ethic.
Here’s a synopsis from the YouTube video description:
“’Molly’s Game’ is based on the true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned that there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led us to believe.”
Molly’s Game will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (which we’ll be going to! Hooray!) in September, before its general release on November 22.