Quote:
Originally Posted by Dilly_
That looks genuinely awful and I'm confident I'll enjoy it all the same lol
Funny, I had the opposite thought: it looks genuinely cool and I have a feeling it will piss me off when I actually see it.
The most important name on the project in terms of piquing my anticipation is Paul Schrader, who penned
Raging Bull,
Taxi Driver and
The Mosquito Coast. (And yet, to shed some light on the merits of the Oscars, he never got a nomination for his screenwriting until
First Reformed a few years ago. I would have bet he received awards love for Taxi Driver all the way back when. Learn something new every day, I suppose.)
Scorsese has his name on this, officially as EP, although I can't get a good read as to how much involvement he had. The story in the trades said Scorsese was part of a small panel of people who saw a rough cut and provided some input to get the project across the finish line. That's not nothing, either:
Star Wars famously underwent some significant revisions after a private screening, changes that arguably transformed the project from a likely dumpster fire to a pioneering classic. Schrader might boast a fine filmography as a writer, but his list of directorial credits is less impressive. Getting input from Scorsese might be as valuable to this as the reboarding that Coppola, Spielberg and DePalma was for George Lucas some 44 years ago.
The comparison to
Rounders is inevitable, since when many people say "the next Rounders," they just mean "the next good poker-themed movie*." The DP for
The Card Counter is Alexander Dynan, who Schrader previously hired for
Dog Eat Dog. Dynan shot the fourth season of Showtime's
Billions, for which the
Rounders writing duo of Levien and Koppleman serve as show-runners.
Finally, one fun fact: the poker consultant for this movie? None other than PokerStars announcer, longtime podcaster and the original king of hairy Italian comedy, Joe Stapleton.
*Not for nothing, but when I use that phrase, I refer to the next movie that might encourage people to get into poker. This isn't it. But that's not what the OP meant, so I refuse to nitpick the thread title.
Last edited by Wilbury Twist; 07-27-2021 at 08:21 PM.
Reason: I had some weird paragraph breaks.