According to Deadline, four-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate, Platoon), Tiffany Haddish (Girls’ Trip, The Kitchen) and Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One) have officially been cast to star opposite Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac in director Paul Schrader’s upcoming revenge thriller film The Card Counter. In addition, award-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese has also signed on as an executive producer which reunites him with his long-time collaborator Schrader in their fifth project together.
Dafoe, Haddish and Sheridan are set to portray the roles of an unnamed military colonel, a gambling financier La Linda, and Cirk, a young man who wants to seek revenge on a mutual enemy he has with Oscar Isaac’s William Tell.
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In The Card Counter film, William Tell’s spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk.
Gaining backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda, Tell takes Cirk with him on the road, going from casino to casino until the unlikely trio set their sights on winning the World Series of poker in Las Vegas. However, things get difficult when Tell realizes that trying to keep Cirk on the right path proves to be an impossible task as he gets dragged back into the darkness of his past.
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The film will be written and directed by Schrader, who is best known for writing the screenplays to Martin Scorsese‘s iconic films such Taxi Driver, Bringing Out the Dead, The Last Temptation of Christ and Raging Bull. Schrader’s most recent project was the 2017 drama film First Reformed starring Ethan Hawke which had gave him his first Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.
The Card Counter will be produced by Braxton Pope and Lauren Mann with William Olsson and David Wulf serving as executive producers. Hanway Film will be handling its international sales. This project will be Pope and Schrader’s second collaboration, who have previously worked together on The Canyons film.
Principal photography is expected to begin early this year.
(Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images & John Shearer/Getty Images & Steve Granitz/WireImage via Getty Images)
