A Closer Look at Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game

The king of screenwriting is making his debut behind the camera with the drama film based on the true, extraordinary story of Molly Bloom, a world-class skier turned head of the most exclusive underground poker empire turned FBI target.

As with many of his movies, Aaron Sorkin didn’t pen the script of Molly’s Game with the intention of directing it. But along the way, something felt different about this one, something that told him that if he had to direct one of his creations, it would be it. “I felt like there was a chance I could be good at it. I don’t mean good at directing. I mean good at directing this movie,” explained the writer in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “God knows I was scared going into it, but I just felt like if I was ever going to do it, it was going to be this.”

Although he admits the idea scared him, Sorkin’s irrepressible feeling that the moment was right to step into the director’s chair would later be reinforced by positive critical responses after the movie premiered at the Toronto International Film and AFI Festivals. An impressively good start that means this might not be his last attempt at directing…

But there’s still a lot we don’t know about Molly’s Game, which remains weeks away from being officially released in theatre, giving us a little more time to focus on what makes the production seem like such an impending success among audiences.

Watch the featurette below to learn more about the film coming out on December 25, before going wide on January 5, 2018.

 

“She’s not an expert on gambling, she’s an expert on gamblers,” explains Aaron Sorkin in the video. An important distinction that properly characterizes Molly Bloom as an extremely intelligent, resourceful and highly ambitious woman who went from being a cocktail waitress to running the biggest, most exclusive poker games in America. “Even though I knew nothing about poker, it became very clear to me that this was a massive opportunity,” says the real Molly.

But what started as legal quickly turned into something illegal, forcing Molly to make a choice that will question her sense of moral after she was arrested by the FBI to give up information about people related to the fraudulent business she had become a central part of.

To bring the strong, magnetic character of Molly to life, Jessica Chastain was Sorkin’s first choice almost from the very beginning. “I wanted her from as soon as I was done writing page one,” says Sorkin. And it wasn’t hard to convince the actress, not just because she would have the opportunity to perform alongside Idris Elba and Kevin Costner, but most importantly because she found the project very exciting. “This is the story about going for it and succeeding in a man’s world,” confirms the real Molly Bloom.

Although you wouldn’t expect this kind of movie to be uplifting, Sorkin affirms that this one actually is. Guess we’ll have to wait until Christmas to find out how…