Despite currently dodging giant robots for Transformers: Age Of Extinction, Mark Wahlberg still has time to plan future projects. He’s now got his eye on Paramount’s remake of The Gambler, with **Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes **director Rupert Wyatt in discussions to direct.
The Gambler, originally made by Karel Reisz in 1974, found James Caan as a literature professor whose gambling addiction lands him in trouble with his girlfriend, his family and, possibly most dangerously, some nasty gangsters. James Toback wrote the original script (and is apparently none too happy with the idea of a remake), with William Monahan set to handle scripting duties this time.
Both Martin Scorsese and Todd Phillips have flirted with directing this one, but now Wyatt might just settle on it as his Apes follow-up, even as he develops the **Birdsong **adaptation further.
But might another, even bigger assignment get in the way? Recent rumours have floated suggesting that Wyatt is the front-runner for the director’s chair on Star Trek 3, and J.J. Abrams spoke to HitFix and added more fuel to the fire (albeit in that non-committal Abrams way) by saying that he thought team Star Trek would be lucky to have him.
Given his busy schedule on the other Star franchise, Abrams looks set to merely produce this time around, so he’ll certainly have a say in who gets the gig. But until there’s something more official, consider this one floating in rumour space, with the true identity of the next Trek director as cloaked as a stealthy Romulan Warbird, and look out for more word on The Gambler.