In just the last decade alone, the work of Aaron Sorkin has attracted some of the most talented filmmakers in Hollywood. So when it came time for the Oscar-winning screenwriter to make his directorial debut with the upcoming film Molly's Game, how did he reflect on those past collaborations? Well, in his own words, by blatantly stealing from them. He recently told me,
I stole from them outright. I've spent hundreds of hours standing next to some of the most talented directors of all time -- the one's that you mentioned, Bennett [Miller], David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Mike Nichols... and in television too! Tommy Schlamme, Anthony Hemingway, Paris Barclay, Alan Poole. And so hopefully some of it rubbed off on me. Like I said, I had no problem stealing from them.
I met Aaron Sorkin in Las Vegas last week during a press line at CinemaCon -- the annual convention for movie theater owners -- and used the opportunity to discuss his latest project. Specifically noting some of the names above, I asked how his work with great filmmakers influenced his approach and style, and it turns out that we can expect Molly's Game to be a bit of "All Of The Above."
Aaron Sorkin has spent his entire career working with great filmmakers, having started in the 1990s with two Rob Reiner movies, but has been on a real roll in recent years. His work with David Fincher on The Social Network yielded him an Academy Award, and both Bennett Miller and Danny Boyle made beautiful features from his scripts for Moneyball and Steve Jobs, respectively. It's interesting that all of the directors Sorkin mentioned have very distinct styles, so how they wind up being filtered through his unique brain should be one of the most curious things about Molly's Game.
In addition to leaning on his past experiences with great directors, Aaron Sorkin also admitted to me that he put a lot of trust in his colleagues in the making of his directorial debut. Though he has spent decades making movies, he still relied on the experience of his team to help him make the best movie he could make. Said Sorkin,
Also, what I did was rely heavily on the very talented people around me -- our DP Charlotte Christensen, our First AD, our production designers -- who kind of held my hand through the process.
Based on the memoir "Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker," the new movie stars Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom -- a former Olympic hopeful who winds up on the FBI's radar after starting an illegal high-stakes poker game. Sorkin adapted the story himself, and has assembled an impressive supporting cast that also includes Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera and Chris O'Dowd.
You can watch both Aaron Sorkin and Jessica Chastain talk about their work together on Molly's Game in the video below:
Molly's Game sadly doesn't currently have a release date just yet, but it is set up to be distributed by STX Entertainment, and we'll have more details for you here on CinemaBlend as soon as they're available.
