Ryan Reynolds…the gambling addict?

ryan-reynoldsDid the title throw you for a loop?

Don’t worry; it’s only half true.

As far as we know, Ryan Reynolds is not a gambling addict. But he is scheduled to play one in an upcoming gambling movie that’ll most likely join the Justin Timberlake-starring poker movie, Runner Runner, in our must-watch movies list in the future.

While still having no release date, it’s been announced that Reynolds will be starring in the gambling movie “Mississippi Grind”.

According to Deadline, Mr. Green Lantern himself has signed on to be the lead role of the movie drama where he will star opposite Ben Mendelsohn, who played the role of Daggett in the Dark Knight Rises.

Mississippi Grind chronicles the story of a gambling addict (presumably, that’s Reynolds) who gets buried under a pile of mounting gambling debts before deciding to go on a gambling road trip across the southern US with his buddy (Mendelsohn) while they try to clear debts and reverse their gambling fortunes.

Based on the rather loose and thin description of the movie, Mississippi Grind does sound like a southern version of the Matt Damon/Edward Norton poker movie, Rounders. That’s a pretty good comp, if you’re one of the people behind the production of Mississippi Grind who has a say on the direction of the movie. Rounders was arguably one of the best gambling-related movies in recent history (don’t get us started on 21) and if Mississippi Grind hopes to get to that level, then it’s going to have its work cut out for it.

Getting a household name like Ryan Reynolds on board is a pretty good start. Now the pressure’s on writer directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who most recently created Half Nelson and It’s Kind Of A Funny Story, to give us a story that we can all latch on and get excited about.