Although the whole poker trend sliding rapidly from “white hot” to “tepid” these days, that hasn’t stopped people making films about the subject. Zak Penn has card drama The Grand on the way, while Curtis Hanson has been sitting on Eric Bana gambling pic Lucky You for ages.
And now Hayden Christensen has signed up to play “poker brat” Phil Hellmuth in a biopic called The Madison Kid. Hellmuth became the youngest-ever person to nab the World Champion of Poker title in 1989, by trouncing the current two-time defending champ at the age of 24. He also attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (hence the title) until dropping out to play the game full time. As you might expect, that didn’t fly well with his father, who just happened be a professor at the college.
Bob Soderstrom – a friend of Hellmuth – wrote the script, which still needs a director if it’s going to start shooting in May next year.