Paramount to Remake ‘The Gambler’ with Wahlberg, Lange and Lawson
Paramount to Remake ‘The Gambler’ with Wahlberg, Lange and Lawson The initial poster for ‘The Gambler’ starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton; Mark Wahlberg will be

The initial poster for ‘The Gambler’ starring James Caan and Lauren Hutton; Mark Wahlberg will be playing this part in the remake.
Modern audiences often capture the classics of literature via their film versions; take Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ or Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’. Mention Fyodor Dostoevsky to a more youthful generation of Internet-raised intelligentsia, and you could get nothing but a blank stare; and the 1974 movie version, loosely on the basis of the prolific journalist’s novella, may maybe not resonate a lot more either. But that film’s original cult success has now spurred movie giant Paramount Pictures to attempt a remake of this classic movie (which in addition is not related in virtually any option to the Kenny Rogers classic country song of the identical name) by having an all-star cast that can hold its own against the first.
A Lot to Live Up To
The remake will have some iconic performances to complement up to, that is without a doubt; and of course quite a bit of Hollywood lore that went on during the initial production’s filming. For example, a then-very-young James Caan (who from 2003-2007 played the casino magnate lead in the hit TV series ‘Las Las vegas’), was reportedly grappling with his own real-life cocaine addiction during shooting; he was also selected for the Golden Globe for his role as Axel Freed, an English professor in new york whose gambling addiction overtakes his life. In a type of art-imitates-life-imitates-art affect, within the film, Freed is teaching his students Dostoevsky, but in his life that is personal massive gambling addiction has, not surprisingly, left him saddled with debt; to be specific, $44,000 owed to his bookie Hips that he cannot come up with on his or her own.
Freed gets the debt paid by his own mother, and heads off together with girlfriend Billie (played within the film that is original gap-toothed model Lauren Hutton) to Sin City, where he pulls an Archie Karas-style rise and fall of gambling fortunes move. Billie has to bear the brunt of his wrath at losing his fortune that is amassed back, when she expresses her displeasure at loan sharks showing up at all hours of the indian dreaming pokies day and night to collect their due. Even though Axel believes his grandfather that is own will him out of warm water this time, he is sadly disappointed once the man will not have anything regarding him.
Debt Repayment Plan
Up against a wall surface with not a way to pay his debts back and bookies hounding him, Axel recruits one of his true pupils that is a black basketball star to take a bribe in one of their bookies to shave points in an upcoming game. When that stunt is taken off, Axel goes confidently to the ghetto together with student friend, ignoring warnings from their primary bookie it’s a dangerous area.
Of course, he ends up fighting a pimp when he will not pay a hooker, and Axel gets the best of that match, and then be slashed throughout the face by the unhappy prostitute. In the last scene, he stares at their bloody face in a mirror, and smiles as if knowing that that’s where life has brought him.
The version that is original Paul Sorvino as Hips, Caan’s ingratiating bookie, among an all-star cast that included a young James Woods; additionally the remake promises no less in its recasting of this classic. Mark Wahlberg is taking on the part of Axel Freed, with an aging Jessica Lange most widely known to current audiences for her starring role in United states Horror Story on television as Axel’s wealthy and mother that is over-the-top. Brie Larson is apparently cast in the Lauren Hutton/girlfriend role of Billie this go-round.
No word yet on when manufacturing will begin, or when the remake is expected to hit theaters.
New Players in American Gaming Association Set to Lobby Congress Hard
Getting ready for a major lobbying push in Congress, the United states Gaming Association has had five brand new seasoned veterans on board (Image: AFP/Robert Sullivan)
It’s a year that is new plus the winds of change carry on to blow, in Washington, D.C. especially. And the casino industry’s most prominent trade association which is really a low-key way of saying ‘lobbying group’ is arming for battle, it appears, by bringing in some new senior staff to make their case to lawmakers, a case that includes continuing to hound Congress for federal oversight of online gaming.
Not that Congress has been particularly receptive to that bid yet, but wish springs eternal.
Prepared for Battle
The American Gaming Association (AGA) announced the new staff members early this week, noting that their main functions will be to amp up the group’s marketing efforts and in addition to clarify their policy functions. That will be fun, thinking about the AGA’s very own account is at major odds as far as what that policy ought to be; while most members heartily endorse or at least are using an approach that is wait-and-see online gaming and its legalization, one prominent and long-time member Las vegas, nevada Sands Corporation’s Sheldon Adelson stays vehemently opposed, and it is spending an incredible number of his own bankroll into anti-Internet gambling campaigns and their own military of lobbyists to market that agenda.
Nonetheless, AGA president Geoff Freeman who so far has pretty diplomatically skirted the interior wars among his casino industry constituents issued a generically worded statement regarding the hirings that hinted at a strongly pro-internet lobbying agenda.
‘Through groundbreaking research, aggressive outreach and on-the-ground activities, this team of experts will position the AGA to champion gaming’s value as being a driver of innovation and economic growth,’ Freeman’s media quote reads. It’s possible to only assume that ‘innovation and growth that is economic refer primarily towards the expansion of legalized online poker and gambling throughout the united states of america; as everyone surely knows by now, Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey are usually ready to go, and California is looking like maybe it’s next.
In the event that Golden State does legalize at least on-line poker, it is a game-changer, given their 38-million-ish in-state populace, which dwarfs next-largest currently online, New Jersey, by almost 29 million potential players.
Bringing Plenty of Ammo to the battle
Freeman says the newest hires all have gaming industry backgrounds, as well as experience both in the private sector and along with other trade associations. Interpretation: they discover how to schmooze, no matter the agenda or setting. Most likely, that’s basically what lobbyists do, besides delivering implied promises of financial support to people who promise to back their organizations’ agendas.
The brand new group has pretty impressive resumes: i.e., connections garnered over many years of previous schmoozing. They come with a vice that is former of public affairs, Sara Rayme, whom helped push through MGM Resorts’ move into the Maryland land casino market; a former vice president of government relations, Chaka Burgess, who brings 20 years of coalition building, lobbying and ally development experience with him: that ability is tested aided by the AGA’s factional membership base. Burgess previously worked with Amgen, Inc. a biotech manufacturing firm as a director in their international government affairs unit.
Then there’s a previous senior manager of communications for the U.S. Travel Association (Freeman’s former workplace before joining AGA in 2013), Allie Barth; International Game Technology (IGT) former manager of gaming policy Elizabeth Cronan, last but not least a new basic counsel, Virginia Hurt Johnson, who is available in with three decades of private and sector background that is public.
Freeman himself has only seven months aided by the group under his belt; he took over from the lobbying organization’s first and only CEO that is previous and Frank Fahrenkopf, Jr. if the latter retired in June 2013.
The brand new hires mirror a momentum that is renewed the AGA: industry leaders Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts Ltd. and Frank Fertitta III of Stations Casinos, as well as Kentucky’s Churchill Downs racetrack and casino, all recently signed up as well. Wynn and Fertitta will be on the AGA’s Board of Directors to boot.
CoinYe West Enters Cryptocurrency Market with New Brand of Coins
There is gold in them thar hills or at the least, a brand new line of cryptocurrency called CoinYe West hopes there is when it launches January 11.
Branding your name onto an endless array of items is absolutely nothing new for major celebrities, but some new digital currency creators have positively pressed the envelope this time. Just because a new knockoff of Bitcoins that is set to launch on January 11 with the cringe-worthy name of CoinYe West hasn’t also gotten Kanye western’s papal blessing for the use words.
CoinYe Oh CoinYe
Obviously, Kanye isn’t the mastermind behind the technology here either, and no body is revealing whom is. But in an interview that is recent Vice.com an online pub that encompasses all thinks hipster artsy-fartsy the secretive creators said that ‘Coinye West is really a cryptocurrency for the masses. Bitcoin is for hardcore money-hoarders, and Dogecoin was more for the Internet-meme crowds … Our goal with Coinye West is making it easier for people to use cryptocurrency.’
In the event you’ve been residing in a cave and are nevertheless not really acquainted with cryptocurrencies, they are essentially decentralized, unregulated, difficult-to-trace financial systems whose values are based solely on peer-to-peer market perceptions. These currencies’ appeal has been the privacy that accompanies their use; and as they may involve some genuine online destinations, they’ve become infamous as the only deal currency for sites like Silk path a site that specializes in every things nefarious and illegal, from medications to weapons to illegal services for hire. Although turn off and seized a few months right back by the Feds, Silk Road quickly reemerged ‘under new management,’ and was back to business as usual, apparently with tighter encryptions and much more secrecy than ever.
Because of their perception-only-based values, there have been wild swings for other existing cryptocurrencies; such as the market frontrunner Bitcoins, which has seen values veer from as low as $60 last Spring to over $1,000 in November, and as of this writing, rests at about US$953 but which could change at any 2nd.
A pronouncement that is recent the Chinese government that their banks would no longer be allowed to carry down deals utilizing the digital money saw U.S. trade prices drop to the $600s, only to mysteriously bounce back up again perhaps not long after.
Plenty of Competition
There now be seemingly somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 Bitcoin knockoffs, therefore CoinYe would hardly be Bitcoins’ first competitor, if it requires down. Brands with names like Peercoin, Namecoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ripple all are trying to ride the electronic gravy train, which for Bitcoin has ended up being largely based on sales of the apparatus used to ‘mine’ the currency an ironic nod to the initial silver miners in Ca, where those that sold miners’ supplies typically made the fortunes that eluded most of the miners themselves.
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