A remake of the 1974 movie starring James Caan, THE GAMBLER stars Mark Wahlberg as a literature professor whose gambling addiction gets him mixed up with a group of gangsters led by a no-nonsense John Goodman. While it may be a stretch to imagine Marky Mark waxing poetic about 19th century prose, the star of THE FIGHTER certainly looks at home in the seedy underworld of guns, gangsters and gambling.

Jessica Lange and Brie Larson also star in the film directed by RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES‘ Rupert Wyatt. This is certainly not Wyatt’s first foray into crime stories. His 2008 film THE ESCAPIST, about a convicted felon trying to make amends with his estranged daughter by hatching a plan to escape prison, put the English director on the map when it got considerable buzz at Sundance.

THE GAMBLER arrives in US theaters on December 19, 2014. Check out the red band trailer from Paramount below:

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