Brian Koppelman on Rounders Sequel

It’s the cult poker movie which launched a million wannabe pros, and one of the main forces behind the classic ‘Rounders’ is still being asked about plans for a follow-up to the film which introduced Mike McDermott, TeddyKGB and Worm to the poker world.

Koppelman tweeted…

Tomorrow night I will answer question on any subject but if you ask me about a sequel to Rounders, I will make up some bullshit.

— Brian Koppelman (briankoppelman) March 26, 2017

…and then he did just that!

In fact: yes. There is a sequel to Rounders. The gag is: Matt is playing Worm and Edward is playing Mike. Turturro and Famke also switching.

— Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) March 26, 2017

The film-maker and producer who brought us the dramatic showdown between Matt Damon and John Malkovich, in which Damon’s character McDermott is basically playing Malkovich’s Russian gangster not only to clear a huge debt but also essentially for his life, joked:

Maybe my pinned tweet should be: Dave and I want to make Rounders 2 as much as you want to see it. But we don't control the rights.

— Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) March 27, 2017

The Dave in question, David Levien, was Koppelman’s co-writer of the cult classic directed by John Dahl, and there are very few players of the new millennium who weren’t inspired to take the game up – or take it more seriously - by the movie.

The quotes made famous by the film still appear in forums to this day:

"It's immoral to let a sucker keep his money," "In the poker game of life, women are the rake . . . they are the fucking rake," and KGB’s "He beat me - straight up. Pay him. Pay that man his money."

For a movie maestro like Koppelman – who has many famous credits to his name including Oceans 13, it must get tiring answering the same questions all the time, especially as latest baby Billions has just been renewed for a 3rd season – a series ‘loosely based on the activities of crusading federal prosecutor of financial crimes Preet Bharara’, a man known and hated by millions of poker players for his lead role in the 2011 Black Friday indictments.

Poker featured quite heavily in a recent episode, Phil Hellmuth playing a cameo role as the characters battled it out in a charity event, and Koppelman was also heavily involved in ‘Runner Runner’, a 2013 crime thriller which saw Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake star.

So, it isn’t all Rounders talk on Koppelman’s Twitter feed, but poker is always there or thereabouts….

I get asked this questions almost every week. https://t.co/jXYDKnItzw

— Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) March 27, 2017

…and the poker challenges are not slow in forthcoming either…

Come on, man. You really want to do this? Ok. Head's up. Name stakes. I get @VanessaSelbst coaching me. https://t.co/z5pFORVZLO

— Brian Koppelman (@briankoppelman) March 27, 2017

...and even though a Rounders 2 seems less highly unlikely in the near future, Koppelman’s poker roots at least ensure that what we do get to see on the big screen has legitimacy and accuracy which are often missing from fictional poker!