In August, two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain gave audiences a glimpse of the shrewd, fast-talking poker boss she will bring to life in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, Molly’s Game. Now a second trailer has been released for the STXfilms movie that tells the story of Molly Bloom, a real-life skier turned high-stakes poker queen, aka the “Poker Princess.”
After narrowly missing her shot at the Olympics, Bloom finds herself running an underground poker ring for her boss at the notorious Viper Room in Hollywood. As her operation grows, Bloom breaks out on her own and begins hosting lavish games in New York City with incredibly high stakes — in more ways than one. When Russian mobsters infiltrate the scene, she is arrested in an FBI raid. The film follows her subsequent newfound fame leading up to her trial.
The first trailer, which debuted several months earlier, had a Martin Scorsese-esque feel to it with cryptic, story-building voiceovers.
“The humiliation had given way to blinding anger at my powerlessness. I wasn’t going to wait before I put a plan in place,” Chastain’s Bloom tells us in that debut trailer. The sharp lines, combined with images of flowing champagne, red-sequined cleavage, and giant wads of cash all paint an intriguing debut for renowned writer-turned-director Sorkin.
As Chastain riffs cleverly with her lawyer (played by Idris Elba), shots flash of sprawling poker chips and talk of $250,00 buy-ins. “Families, lives, careers will be ruined,” Chastain declares prophetically, giving the sequence the feel of a Sorkin-influenced Goodfellas.
The film, produced by Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal, and Matt Jackson, was purchased last year by STX at the Cannes Film Festival to the tune of $9 million. The script is Sorkin’s adaptation of Rachel Bloom’s book Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker. He apparently decided to make the film after a friend of his represented the real-life Bloom after she was arrested and Sorkin read her book.
In addition to the Golden Globe-winning Chastain, Molly’s Game stars Elba, Kevin Costner, and Michael Cera. It was screened last month at the Toronto International Film Festival and is scheduled for a wide release in theaters November 22.
Update: We added the second trailer for the film.
