The film is set to be released in 2011, and just the cast alone is interesting enough since Gary Oldman and Dane Cook are co-stars with Slater.  As if Oldman sharing the screen with supposed comedian Dane Cook and has-been Slater isn’t strange enough, wait till you get a load of the tagline.

The producers of Girls, Guns, and Gambling bill the movie as, “Elvis impersonators, Indians, modern cowboys, a 6-foot-tall blond assassin, a frat boy, a corrupt sheriff and a prostitute into a chase for a priceless American Indian artifact stolen during a poker game at an Indian casino.”

To clear the tagline up, Oldman is going to play Elvis, Dane Cook is going to be the sheriff, Helena Mattsson is the 6-foot-tall blond assassin, and Christian Slater is presumably the frat boy, although he’s listed as John Smith.

This movie sounds like every terrible Las Vegas/gambling stereotype brought to life.  Strangely, Girls, Guns, and Gambling also sounds like it will be fun to watch.  One can’t help but wondering how much it will have to do with poker as opposed to the chase for the Indian artifact.  Nevertheless, it should be entertaining.

This opportunity arose over a year and a half years ago when Hollywood producer Robin Schorr encouraged Ferguson to invest in a company called RCR Pictures.  Unfortunately for Schorr, convincing Ferguson wasn’t easy since it took up until now for him to agree to invest.

The money is definitely there now though since both Ferguson and his business partner Ray Bitar are both going to invest.  In fact, Schorr has estimated that the pair will be putting $5-$10 million into her company.  Schorr’s successful resume was a chief reason why both Ferguson and Bitar decided to invest in RCR Pictures; Schorr produced The Prince and Me as well as a documentary called Food Inc., which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Many people have speculated that the next step for RCR Pictures will be to make a poker movie.  However, Schorr’s first step with the new investors on board is to do a remake of a 1966 film called Nevada Smith.  In Nevada Smith, the main character’s parents are murdered, which prompts him to exact revenge on those responsible.

Since this movie has nothing to do with poker yet, it will be interesting to see when RCR Pictures will consider making a poker film.  It could be soon as Schorr said, “Yes, I would love to find a poker movie.”

Can we predict a second-coming of Rounders?

Shark Out of Water is a new short film by Juan Riedinger, produced by Andrew Halliwell. It’s garnering some significant buzz and has been hitting the film festival circuits as of late.

It’s well-acted by Matty Finochio and Artine Brown (with a subtle, yet good, Phil Hellmuth cameo). It’s a poker movie made by guys that know and play poker. They were literally sleeping in a casino during some of the shooting. That’s dedication.

The film depicts what can happen when players put poker ahead of everything else, and then hit a bad run. It’s compelling and troubling at once.

Shot in Vancouver, Canada, the film reads like a proof of concept more than a complete movie. By that I mean, it’s a short and thus has its limitations. I would like to see a poker-based feature from these guys. After watching SOOW, I feel like it would be an instant hit amongst poker players and drama-lovers alike.

Our Affiliate Director, Atil, had a chance to sit down with Halliwell recently and I’ve included that invterview below. I really suggest checking out the piece and the film. Both are great.

When is the official launch date?
The film has already screened at a number of festivals across North America, but we officially launched our DVD with Special Features on November 15, 2009. The ‘launch’ became ‘official’ when we heard Phil Hellmuth himself “tweeted” about the film on his personal page, stating: “I have a scene in Shark out of Water, a short film that was a nominee for Best Short Drama at the Leo Awards.” This definitely started a buzz about the film and attracted A LOT of people to our website: www.sharkoutofwater.com.

What inspired you to create this film?
The writer and director, Juan Riedinger, is avid poker-player himself. I remember he told me he was on a bit of a bad run, and he wanted to capture that experience in a solid and realistic story about poker. His love for the game comes through in the story too, as I think the end result depicts the double-edged sword that is Poker. The highs and the lows. The constant fluctuation between triumph and tilt.


How long did it take you to create this?

It’s been almost a two year endeavour from the early stages of pre-production to now. The director, who is also a close friend of mine, mentioned he wrote a short screenplay about poker. I offered to produce the project, and that’s what brought us to where we are now.
Was it difficult getting Phil Hellmuth and Brad Booth, since you are a small production company?
The stars kind of aligned for us. We manged to get Phil’s phone number from a mutual contact. We literally just called him up one day and offered him a role in our film. He liked the script, and it so happened that he was coming to Vancouver (where we shot the film) with Annie Duke for a poker tour, so we managed to make the scheduling work. Brad heard about the project through a contact we had at the casino we shot at. At the time, he was splitting his time between Vancouver and Vegas, and he happened to be in town during our shoot.

Since Brad lives in Vancouver now, we’ve actually become friends since making the film. Hopefully, we’ll be working with him on future projects. Although our production company is still in its grassroots stage, I think having the opportunity to appear in a great short film about poker would be appealing to any poker player. What our company lacks in scope, we make up for with passion, grit, and professionalism. I think Phil and Brad saw this. Also, the rest of the cast and crew we assembled were top notch, and most work regularly in the film/tv industry in Vancouver, which really added the the production value as a whole.


What message were you trying to send the audience?
Our main goal was to make a film that was entertaining, and realistically showed a glimpse into the world of poker. We wanted to tell a story about the “everyman” poker-player as authentically as possible. We wanted to make something that an audience could relate to. The pots in the film range from $100 to $500 (which is a lot of money for some people). How realistic is it to see a million dollar pot? We’ll leave that to the James Bond movies. Aside from the poker, we also wanted to convey the humanity of our characters, and the effects that poker can have on individuals and relationships.


What can we expect from your company in regards to poker in the future?
We’re hoping that the calibre and success of Shark Out of Water will prove to potential investors that we are fully capable of delivering a solid film – from conception to sale – and will trust us with an investment in a larger-scale project. Making a feature film is the ultimate goal. We’re currently working on one project involving the subject of poker right now. Unfortunately we can’t say much more than that, as the idea is still in development.

Were there any particularly memorable experiences from set that you’d like to share?
Getting to work with Phil and Brad was an amazing experience. These guys were consummate professionals, and were a true pleasure to have on set. One particularly memorable experience was seeing the director sit down at a table with Phil and play him heads up. After filming his scenes, Phil graciously accepted Juan’s challenge to play him for the fee his agent requested for his appearance in the film. I don’t want to reveal too much, because the entire experience can be seen in the “behind-the-scenes featurette” on our DVD. I’ll also never forget how Juan and I actually slept in the casino between shooting days, because we needed to have personnel watching all the gear overnight for insurance reasons. This was indie filmmaking at its finest!

How difficult is it to make a short film about poker?

Making a short film about anything is extremely challenging. The added challenge of making a poker movie was capturing the subtleties of the game for the poker-players in the audience, yet keeping it interesting for a wider audience as well. I know that being a poker-player himself, Juan felt that it was very important to have realistic situations. We are so sick of seeing straight flushes beat four of a kind in poker movies. It’s such an unrealistic scenario, and has no place in a poker film that wants to be taken seriously. Also, I think anyone who plays poker can spot a non-player a mile away…the way the cards are held, the way the chips are stacked, the mannerisms. We took great lengths to cast real poker-players and dealers in the film, and I think that reads on the screen.

When is the film available, and how can someone go about purchasing it?

As of this week, the film is finally available for purchase (just in time for Christmas). If you’d like to purchase the DVD (which includes tons of additional bonus features, including the director’s heads up match against Phil Hellmuth, and some deleted/extended scenes) it is available for purchase directly from our website: www.sharkoutofwater.com. Please join our facebook group. And also check the site for other exciting news and information about the film, including the trailer.

How Rounders Can Help You Win Money Off Your Friends: A lesson in movie induced dude-itude.

People give Rounders a lot of credit for a lot of things. It’s popularity in 1998 (probably? I’m too lazy to look it up) helped out with the poker boom and taught a lot of people the basic rules of No Limit Hold’em.

As a reader of this blog, I guarantee you’ve seen that movie at least a few times. It makes poker looks cool. It makes seedy Russian gangsters look cool. It even makes Matt Damon look cool.

If you’re sitting around with a few of your buddies and Rounders comes on cable, you’re going to wind up playing a card game that night. The closer to the credits that you play, the better your friends are going to be think they are at cards. It’s pretty much a lock that you’ll take their money.

Idiots get influenced by movies all the time and don’t even know it (stops to smoke cigarette, drive Audi, drink Pepsi and play hand of poker).

Seriously – when you’re a little bit light before heading out to the bar, invite your friends over early. What? Rounders was playing in my DVD player? Huh. May as well keep it on…What? You know, that’s right…That IS my chip set. Let’s have a game.

The trick is not to stare directly at the movie as Ed Norton and Matty D might just make you think you’re awesome, too. I just stare at the CM Coolidge painting to the right of my TV or the nekkid lady cards I got at the gas station, because I’m classy like that.

You’re Welcome.

“I recollect a young man putting the same question to Eddie the Dude. ‘Son,’ Eddie told him, ‘all you paid was the looking price. Lessons are extra.’”

Only problem is no one can get in the game anymore. One rounder Chris Belentta sat under some pretense but after they found out he was a pro he couldn’t cross the street anymore with out some sort of legal hassle. Even his regular club – Four Shades got shut down. It had been open since 1907…

“Oh michael, you got some things for me? just put them on the desk over there.”

“..He paying you for this late night s#%$ kid?”

“Knowledge is my reward sir,” Michael responds with a smile.

“haha, Well it aint worth it. Why don’t you become a jockey – do something useful. haha?”

“Kids a little tall isnt he Dean?”

“Enough with the Belmont recruiting spiel, your bet.”

“Michael is lead council in the court your presiding over next week, besides he could use the background if his gonna clerk for one of you fellas next summer,” Abe mentions casually.

“Abe, i thought you liked the kid, why you wanna make him a civil servant?” retorts the Dean.

“A word to the wise kid, stay in private sector.”

The amazing thing is that in the collection of all this great legal minds, there inst one poker player here.well

Call, Call, “Raise – Professor raises,” Interjects Michael.

Not sure if Im gonna bring my legal career to a crashing halt before it even starts, but I just cant help myself.

Check, check, “Check to Martin and Louis over there.” “Check to the raiser.”

“Whats the limit?” Michael starts

“Big bets $20. $20.”

“Bet $20.”

“You’ve seen half the hand! How the f#$% are you betting into us? are you sure this is wise Abe? its your money the kids betting with.” Comments the Judge

“Its plenty wise, we know what we’re holding and we know what your holding,” Retorts Michael.

“The f@#! you know what we all got!”

“Summer clerkship in your office says I know what your holding?”

“I don’t bet with jobs like that but lets just say ill put you at the top of the list if your right.”

“..Ok. Well you were looking for that third 3 but your forgetting the professor folded it on 4th street and now your representing that you have it. The DA made his two pair but he knows their no good. Judge Kapan was trying to squeeze out a diamond flush but he came up short and Mr Isen is futilely hoping his queens are gonna hold up. so like i said, the bet’s $20.”

Who knows what this is from? Probably the best poker movie made…