Ben Affleck & Justin Timberlake To Play The Odds in 'Runner, Runner'

By Matt Holmes / April 14, 2012

Runner, Runner, a new high stakes online gambling thriller from The Lincoln Lawyer helmer Brad Furman. Based on an original screenplay written by duo Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who are no strangers to this world having wrote the 1998 poker classic Rounders (which incidentally starred Affleck's long time collaborator/friend Matt Damon in an early film role) and Ocean's Thirteen (which also starred Damon and Affleck's brother Casey in a supporting role), the movie will focus on the often seedy world of illegal gambling on the web, looking at the people involved in playing the odds some 14 years since Rounders first hit theaters. With the expansion of the internet in the past 14 years, online gambling has exploded and now savvy users can make millions from the comfort of their own bedroom, chomping down on pizza takeaways whilst wearing their PJ's. No specific plot details have been revealed yet or even a starting date for the project but we imagine that shooting won't begin until Affleck has delivered Argo in theaters this September and has completed his press duties. Meanwhile Timberlake has become an in-demand actor from Hollywood's elite and has the Coen Brothers movie Inside Llweyn Davis and Clint Eastwood's Trouble With The Curve to film back-to-back. Of course the reason he is getting all these film roles right now, including his recent starring turn in New Regency's own In Time, is because he was so good in The Social Network where he similarly played a guy who made his name in the online sphere, portraying Napster founder Sean Parker. Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way are producing along with Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Double Feature's Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, Stone Village Pictures' Scott Steindorff and Koppelman and Levien. Stone Village will co-finance the project while 20th Century Fox will distribute. The film was originally setup at Paramount before they sold it to New Regency. source - variety