Director Stephen Frears and writer D.V. DeVincentis last worked together on the John Cusack classic, HIGH FIDELITY back in 2000, but now they’ve reteamed for a new project, titled LAY THE FAVORITE, based on an upcoming memoir by Beth Raymer.
Raymer’s memoir is set amid a group of fiftyish math geeks who figure out how to work the sportsbook system in Las Vegas for their own profit. It centers on a woman in her early thirties who has made a series of bad choices but achieves a redemption of sorts when she meets and then becomes involved with the gamblers.
“It’s a less violent, less sketchy version of the mob,” DeVincentis said of the colorful gamblers, who are based on real people. “This is the version of 50-year-old math geeks from Queens in basketball shorts who have pet guinea pigs.”
Though pretty different in subject matter, both FIDELITY and FAVORITE are supposed to be dealing with similar themes including “the tribulations of adulthood as well as with the appeal and perils of living in an insular world.” Deep stuff.
No one is attached to star yet, so it’s possible Cusack could come back for the trifecta, but two out of three ain’t bad for now.
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