Your imaginary boyfriend is teaming up with your eccentric uncle whose Facebook posts are almost always entertaining and only occasionally questionable/borderline offensive: Variety reports that Oscar Isaac has signed on to star in Paul Schrader’s new movie, The Card Counter. As with his previous film, the critically-acclaimed First Reformed, Schrader will write and direct the follow-up, which is being described as a revenge-thriller.
The Card Counter stars Isaac as William Tell, a gambler and military veteran whose simple life of playing cards at casinos is disrupted by Cirk, a troubled young man out for revenge. Cirk and William share a mutual enemy in their past, and it’s this man—a military colonel—that the former is pursuing. William attempts to take Cirk under his wing and the two embark on a road trip, playing various casinos on the way to the World Series of poker in Las Vegas. In an official statement, Gabrielle Stewart, managing director of HanWay Films (which will distribute the film internationally), heaped praise on Schrader while further describing the film as follows:
Schrader is a master of economical and cinematic story-telling. This is essentially an unlikely and surprising three-hander that weaves together the entertaining world of gambling; a potent and personal revenge thriller; unafraid to ask some extremely current and uncomfortable questions. Isaac’s Tell is set to be a modern, iconic anti-hero, unmistakably drawn by this genius screenwriter.
Isaac recently wrapped filming on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and can be seen next in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.