A RELEASE date has finally been announced for the highly anticipated, revenge thriller film, The Card Counter. This film will be making its way to the big screen in North America from 10 September 2021.
An official release date of 3 February 2022 has also been confirmed for Portugal with further countries to be announced in the coming weeks. The expected run time will be one hour and 49 minutes.
For fans of classic thrillers and poker themed movies, The Card Counter is something to really look forward to. Let’s review everything we know about the film so far and what we can expect to see on its release later in the year:
The Focus Features title was directed by Paul Schrader, an American director and screenwriter known for co-writing the screenplay for The Yakuza as well as other films including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and the crime drama American Gigolo.
Paul Schrader received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay following his role as writer and director on First Reformed. He is a sought after writer that is admired for his collaborations on a series of Martin Scorsese classics.
Schrader’s latest focus has been The Card Counter, which follows the life of professional gambler William Tell. He is approached and befriended by a crook named Cirk, who is out for revenge on their mutual enemy, a military colonel called John Gordo.
Over the course of the film, Tell attempts to help the troubled young man to get on the right track but instead finds himself being dragged into his plot and being forced to face the demons in his past. Tell, whose main focus following his military career has been playing cards, takes Cirk on the road with him with the help of gambling financier La Linda.
The trio go from casino to casino, building up their winnings and setting their sights on playing in the World Series of Poker.
Focus Features are also known for other popular thrillers including Promising Young Woman, Fifty Shades of Grey, The Lighthouse, Shaun of the Dead and Let Him Go.
Card counting and poker are popular themes in Hollywood movies. The 2008 hit film 21 featured a group of MIT students who secretly trained to become card counters so that they could go on to win millions in poker tournaments in Vegas.
Just like the film 21, the lesser known title Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians is based on fact. This film follows an American Blackjack team as they take millions of dollars from US casinos through their card counting antics.
These films are often set in luxury casinos with grand architecture, such as those found in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo or Singapore. They feature large impressive casino tables, boasting a collection of the best poker chip sets and characters are often dressed to the nines in order to convey the glamour and thrill of casino gambling.
The Card Counter cast is an impressive line-up with protagonist William Tell being played by the talented actor Oscar Isaac. Issac is best known for his role as pilot Poe Dameron in the Star Wars trilogy and as the supervillain Apocalypse in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.
He has also had a successful career in theatre having appeared as leading characters in performances such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In The Card Counter, he plays an intense and anguished character and so it will be interesting to see how well his well-rounded acting career has prepared him for such a role.
Starring alongside Isaac is the young American actor Tye Sheridan as Cirk who has risen to fame through his roles in X-Men, Ready Player One and thriller film The Stanford Prison Experiment. The Texan born star was named as one of Variety's 10 Actors to Watch and is a very sought after casting in the action and sci-fi genres.
Antagonist John Gordo is played by Willem Dafoe, a highly successful American actor who has appeared in a wide range of films. These include Spider-Man, John Wick, Aquaman, Finding Nemo and Murder on the Orient Express.
Appearing as the mysterious gambling financier La Linda, Tiffany Haddish is actually an established comedian who has played part in comedies and dramas such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Disney’s That’s So Raven, Def Comedy Jam, Girls Trip and The Carmichael Show. She also very recently won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for the Netflix stand-up special Black Mitzvah.
While many casino centric films are set in Las Vegas, much of the filming for this upcoming movie took place in Biloxi, Mississippi, a small US city with less than 50,000 inhabitants. Biloxi was also the filming location of 1990s romantic drama Mississippi Masala, as well as the more recent thriller title Arsenal.
Filming began in 2020 and resumed after a short break in the summer of the same year. Now in the post-production phase, excitement is growing for the film’s upcoming release and more details about the plot and individual release dates for each country are expected to be announced shortly.
The Card Counter is a must see film for all casino and poker fans and even those who just enjoy a fast paced thriller with a great cast line up.
