Awkwafina is getting her poker face ready for her next feature film.
The Farewell actress is set to star in SK Global’s The Baccarat Machine, which follows the most successful female gambler in modern history, Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sun, and her unlikely partnership with legendary poker player Phil Ivey.
Andy Bellin is currently writing the script, which is inspired by Michael Kaplan’s article “The Baccarat Machine,” published in Cigar Aficionado, which tells the true story of Sun, a young Chinese woman who turns a painstakingly developed talent and obsession for payback into beating the system at their own game. With major casinos conspiring to bar her from their properties, Sun partners with the international “King of Poker” Ivey in order to take down the system through subterfuge, ingenuity and pure daring, resulting in one of the most ingenious legal gambling runs ever documented.
The project will be produced and financed by SK Global, with co-CEOs John Penotti and Charlie Corwin making Wednesday’s announcement. Jeffrey Sharp of Sharp Independent Pictures will also produce.
The producers are in talks with potential directors.
Awkwafina, who is repped by UTA, Artists First and Shreck Rose, most recently earned critical acclaim for her role in Lulu Wang’s A24 drama The Farewell, for which she received a Golden Globe. She also was recently in theaters in the Jumanji sequel Jumanji: The Next Level, which has grossed over $768 million worldwide to date, and can currently be seen on the Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens.
