Bruce Willis and Rebecca Hall Favorites for Lay The Favorite

Casting News, News, Projects

Deadline reports that Bruce Willis and The Town‘s Rebecca Hall are the two favorites to star in the Stephen Frears adaptation of Beth Raymer’s gambling memoir, Lay the Favorite.

The 2010 memoir describes how Raymer, a then 24-year-old from Ohio, came to Vegas and learned the ropes on sports betting. In praising the debut novel, James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street, blurbed, “Beth Raymer’s prose is like a virgin in a sandy bikini festooned with C-notes.”

For Stephen Frears, this adaptation only helps to diversify his directing portfolio. Having previously helmed the films The Hit, Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, High Fidelity, and The Queen, he has proven adept at giving credence to different subjects and styles, be it period drama, pulp or comedy. Though Hall and Willis are the two front runners to play Beth Raymer and sports bookie Douglas “Dink” Heimowitz, neither are sure things at this point. We told you that Willis was circling two projects. The first was Wes Anderson’s Moon Rise Kingdom, and the other is a heist thriller co-starring 50 Cent. As for Hall, she recently read for the role of Daisy Buchanan opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire for Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby.

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!