Kevin Costner to play Jessica Chastain's father in “Molly's Game”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kevin Costner is in negotiations to play Jessica Chastain’s father in Molly’s Game, the directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

Idris Elba and Michael Cera are already on board the project, which adapts Molly Bloom's memoir Molly’s Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker.

Chastain is starring as the film's title character, a skier who, after her Olympic dreams are dashed, heads to Los Angeles and becomes a cocktail waitress. But she rises through the social circuit to became an organizer of underground poker games for the Hollywood elite, with players including Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. When a Russian mob connection surfaces, the FBI moves in and Molly’s card game is over.

The movie focuses on her relationship with her criminal defense lawyer (Elba), who learns there's much more to Molly than the tabloids led the world to believe.

Costner will play her father, who believes in tough love.

Entertainment One and The Mark Gordon Company are financing the feature, and Mark Gordon is producing with Amy Pascal via her Pascal Pictures banner. Leopoldo Gout serves as an executive producer. STX Entertainment will distribute the pic in the U.S.

Costner, who was recently seen in McFarland, USA and Criminal, next appears in Fox 2000’s period race drama Hidden Figures, which stars Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer and is set to open Dec. 25.