THE GAMBLER (In Development)

• THE GAMBLER

Their last collaboration on a remake was the Oscar-winning The Departed, and now director Martin Scorsese, star Leonardo DiCaprio and screenwriter William Monahan are gambling that lightning might strike twice.

Leonardo DiCaprio & Martin Scorsese

Deadline reports that the trio are reuniting for Paramount's remake of The Gambler, the acclaimed 1974 drama that starred James Caan and was directed by Karel Reisz and written by James Toback. Toback's semi-autobiographical tale was about a college literature professor with a self-destructive gambling addiction.

The original film's producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, will produce the remake.

Toback, however, is none too happy that his tale is being retold without anyone involved even making a courtesy call to him beforehand. He had to find out secondhand (from Brett Ratner of all people) and unloaded about it to Deadline, saying that just because it's legal for the studio and filmmakers to remake the movie it doesn't make it right:

"It might seem odd that my initial response to the news of the purported remake would be something south of 'flattered and honored,' but the truth is that my main feeling was one of disbelief that I was learning of these plans at the same time and in the same fashion as any of the regular devoted readers of this column. ... So learning of the plan to 'remake' my movie at the same time and in the same fashion as any other devoted reader of this esteemed column, I suppose I should feel… what? That a tribute is being paid to a creation I left behind? I suppose. But one doesn't always feel what one is supposed to feel."