Posted on: August 2, 2024, 09:49h.
Last updated on: August 2, 2024, 10:07h.
Matt Damon says he’s desperate to make a follow-up to the 1998 cult poker movie “Rounders.” Speaking on the “Rich Eisen Show” this week, the Hollywood star said that so much has happened in the poker world over the quarter century since the first movie, it’s screaming out for a sequel.
What’s more, many of those involved in making the original are on board with the idea, including Damon’s co-star Edward Norton.
“The one we’ve been talking about for years, and we’re trying to do — and I just saw Edward Norton a few weeks ago … like, all of us want to do it — is a second “Rounders” movie,” Damon said. “So much has happened in the poker world in the last 25 years, it would be fun to catch up with those guys.”
When the Flop Hits You
“Rounders” was initially a box-office flop, pulled from theaters by Miramax after just three weeks, but it later gained a cult following on DVD. Along with the invention of the hole-card cam, the advent of online poker, and amateur qualifier Chris Moneymaker’s shock 2003 World Series of Poker victory, the movie is credited with kickstarting the “poker boom” in the 2000s.
The film follows the adventures of Mike McDermott (Damon) and his degenerate hustler friend “Worm” (Norton). Mike is torn between two worlds, the seedy demi-monde of the underground New York poker scene and the “normal” life he is trying to live as a respectable law student with his girlfriend Jo (Gretchen Mol).
Mike fantasizes about revenge against a Russian gangster, who takes him for his entire bankroll at the beginning of the movie. The gangster, “Teddy KGB,” is played with hammy, sinister relish by the Oreo cookie-munching John Malkovich.
Worm comes back into Mike’s life after being released from prison and confides he owes money to some bad people. So the two hit the tables in a bid to pay off the debt, leading to a final showdown with TeddyKGB. Ultimately, Mike rejects the idea of a normal life, chooses poker, and heads to Vegas to seek his fortune.
Legal Hurdles
Damon says plans for a sequel are still tied up in legal wrangling, but he believes this can be overcome.
“You have to figure out the chain of title, who owns it — and everybody’s got their hands in the pot,” he said.
We have to figure out a deal that makes sense for everybody, particularly the people who are going to make the movie – that’s the artists’ equity, that’s who we care about, the cast and crew. And so, we’re trying to figure that out because I think we’d all like to do that.”
Damon added that “Rounders” writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman had a script for a sequel ready around 10 years ago, which he described as “fantastic” and “a movie ready to go,” but it never got off the ground.
“Now there’s been another whole change in the poker world since then … I’m sure they could augment and roll with the times and update [the script] to where we are today and make something great,” Damon said.
