Will There Ever Be a Film Based on My Book American Roulette?

This is the question I get asked several times each month. As I say to those e-mailers, unfortunately there are no current plans to make a film based on my book and life story. Naturally, this has been quite disappointing for me. I had always thought that my story was very interesting and especially entertaining, and--objectively--better than the story of the MIT blackjack team that was made into the movie "21." And given the huge financial success of that movie (even though I thought it was pretty bad), I figured for sure that Hollywood producers would be banging down my door to buy the film rights for American Roulette. But it hasn't happened.

Why? Honestly, I am perplexed and have no answers. Maybe, in Hollywood people's eyes, what makes the MIT story so attractive is that the people doing the card counting were college students, while the people doing the cheating in American Roulette were more like "Goodfellows" guys, who I'd think would be absolutely appealing to moviegoers. After all, the movie by that name was hugely succesful and popular.

Maybe one day it will happen. It took Frank W. Abagnale's memoir "Catch Me if You Can" more than twenty years to make it to the big screen as a Steven Spielberg movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. So there is still hope for me and American Roulette as it's only been 6 and a half years since the book came out.

So, all you movie producers out there: the film rights to American Roulette are still available!