LUCKY YOU poker movie

Nick Douglas

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A friend who used to work at Vin Diesel's production company passed me a screenplay called LUCKY YOU by Eric Roth (ALI, THE INSIDER, FORREST GUMP) that has Curtis Hansen (8 MILE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) attached to direct and I thought some of y'all might be interested since it centers around poker.

The reason he had it is that Diesel was considering pursuing the lead role of Huck Cheever. Huck (whose name is surely taken from professional poker player Huck Seed) is a gifted poker player. The story follows his journey as he meets a woman, deals with issues with his father and tries to win the World Series of Poker.

I liked the script a lot. I am trying to envision how it would be marketed if it gets made (it is listed as "in production" on <a href="http://www.imdb.com">IMDB</a>, though my friend told me it was in development right now). I think it would be a studio picture, but probably a modestly budgeted one. I would peg it for a Holiday release and I would think that it would have a shot at some awards if properly hyped for them.

In reading it, I couldn't help but think that it was something along the lines of what Nolan Dalla probably imagines for the adaptation of his Stu Ungar book. I remember reading Nolan write that the Ungar book is an Oscar-caliber story, so I am assuming a lot of the themes of that story will be similar to this one, though obviously Ungar's story has a very dark ending.

I will post a recap of what the script is about if folks are interested. I don't want to give away any spoilers here because I am sure some people will want to go into the theater fresh should this movie eventually be released.
 

ferdville

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With the critical success of "Lucky" on FX, it isn't surprising to see that people are reacting to the poker theme. Hope we get to see some good ones before the steam goes out.
 

Nick Douglas

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OK, I will type up a good synopsis of the script. I have a lot of work to do this week until Saturday so I may not get to it until this weekend or even next week. The script is 143 pages with a lot of plot twists to it so it will take me a while to type up a good recap. Glad to see there are some folks who are interested.
 

Nick Douglas

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I wanted to make sure I was being accurate when I compared LUCKY YOU to the excerpt Nolan Dalla posted from <a href="http://www.madjacksports.com/nolan/article605.shtml">STUEY</a> so I went back and read what he wrote about Stu Ungar.

In a way Huck from LUCKY YOU is similar to Stu. They both share a disease of being wonderously gifted but completely incapable of controlling their addiction. Some differences seem to be that Ungar is more petulant, arrogant and mean spirited while Huck has more heart and charm. Obviously I only read a small excerpt from the Ungar book so it is unfair to make that comparison. Click the link above if you want to revisit what Nolan posted a while back and I will get a full recap with spoilers of LUCKY YOU posted on the site soon.
 

goldcupsports

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I will see if I can find the link for the trailers. It wasnt scott baio it was Christopher from the Sopranos. I am not good with actors names as you can see.
 

dawgball

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Is this movie (Stuey) based on Nolan's book? I can't seem to get that through my head.
 

Nick Douglas

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Scott Baio, lol. What was I thinking? You are right that is the guy from the Sopranos.

This movie is not based on Nolan's book (since there is no credit to him). I haven't seen the movie so I cannot comment on whether the material is similar to what Nolan is writing. Sounds like an interesting picture. I hope it gets distribution.

Certainly if Lucky You gets made it will be much larger in scale than Stuey. I am sure with would be a studio picture with Hansen attached.
 

Nick Douglas

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Dawgball,

The link you posted is basically a press release hyping the acquiring of distribution rights for Nolan's yet-to-be-published bio of Ungar. The movie is based on Ungar's life but has nothing to do with Nolan's book. The two projects are unrelated, though surely they will cover a lot of the same ground.

LUCKY YOU is a story of a poker player that is fictional. I related it to Nolan's book only in the sense that there were parallels in that the hero is something of a genius who can't control his demons at times. The reason I chose Nolan's book to compare it to was that I figured some readers would remember what Nolan wrote earlier about the book and the fact that he hoped it would be a major motion picture one day.

Hope that clears it up.
 
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