After spending years as a writer, working on the likes of 2006’s The Fall and The Bourne Legacy, Dan Gilroy has launched himself as a director with the searing Nightcrawler. But for a new job, he’s switching back to just scriptwriting, signing on to adapt John Huddy’s book Storming Las Vegas, which Antoine Fuqua is set to direct.
To give it its full, marquee-straining title, Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down The Strip To The Tune Of Five World Class Hotels, Three Armoured Cars, And Millions of Dollars, the book follows the rags-to-riches story of Jose Vigoa, who has been described as a modern-day Robin Hood.
Born in Cuba, Vigoa was a Soviet army veteran who arrived in Vegas during the ‘90s, when the casinos were trying to push a cleaner image. He and his gang pulled off a violent, 16-month crime wave that saw him hit some of the biggest casinos and get away with millions. But because the businesses didn’t want word of the crimes to damage their brand, a veteran Vegas police officer was told to track him down and keep the incidents out of the papers.
Fuqua has been attached to the project since 2011 and Gilroy’s script could be the kick he needs to commit to actually directing it.