Hollywood Set to Adapt Lay The Favorite

The prospects for the gambling film Lay The Favorite, Take the Dog, are looking up thanks to the increasingly high-profile cast that is being attached to the project.

The film is an adaptation of a memoir by Beth Raymer that weaves her personal story in online gambling in with the rise of the industry in the 1990s. The film is being produced by Focus Films.

At one point, Steven Frears – who is slated to direct the movie – feared that the film may not be made at all. According to a Q&A, Frears said that the studio felt that it needed a more recognizable cast in order to succeed.

But slowly, a strong cast seems to be assembling to take parts in the prospective film. Bruce Willis has already signed on for the role of Dink, an out-of-luck professional gambler. Now, Justin Timberlake and Catherine Zeta-Jones have been rumored to be taking on roles in the film; Timberlake would play Rosie, a Long Island bookmaker, while Zeta-Jones would play Dink’s wife Tulip.

Assuming the cast is up to the studio’s standards, filming is expected to begin in April. Frears is best known for directing such films as Dangerous Liaisons and High Fidelity.

The story would follow Raymer’s memoir, Lay the Favorite, which tells of her time as a cocktail waitress who unexpectedly worked with an older group of math experts in order to become the biggest bookmakers in Las Vegas. Raymer, a Fulbright fellow, studied offshore gambling operations and became an expert in the field.