It looks like Stephen Frears is close to finding cast members for his next planned film, Lay The Favourite: Deadline reports that Bruce Willis and Rebecca Hall are circling the lead roles.
Favourite has been adapted from Beth Raymer’s memoir (full title: Lay the Favourite, Take the Dog), which followed her experience with a group of older men who discovered a way to cheat the system at the famous Las Vegas sports book setups. Naturally, the story involves some dodgy dealing and consequences, and it sounds like a shift back into Grifters territory for Frears, who last brought us Tamara Drewe.
Frears’ High Fidelity collaborator DV DeVincentis has written the script, and while we’re sure Frears’ name would be a draw for the actors, they also both have other attractive possibilities. Willis was just rumoured to be joining Wes Anderson’s latest, Moon Rise Kingdom, and Hall is working with Baz Luhrmann to develop The Great Gatsby (though right now, she’s only participated in a read-through of the script with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire and there’s no guarantee she’ll end up in the final film).
It sounds like it could also be something different for Willis – he has been sticking to his guns (well, shooting them) an awful lot lately…