Luck: Dennis Farina and Dustin Hoffman
Gambling. It’s not about luck, it’s about money, and wherever you find money, there are gangsters. The gangsters in question here are Chester ‘Ace’ Bernstein, played by the legendary Dustin Hoffman and Gus Demitriou, played by the no less awesome Dennis Farina. The count down is on to the premier of HBO’s new gangster horse racing hybrid Luck and the going at the track is good to firm.
Farina plays the part of ‘Ace’ Bernstein’s long time driver and confidante Gus. If Ace is looking to muscle in on some action, Gus is the man to make it happen and the scam that they have cooking for the series premier is Gus playing the front for Aces ownership of Irish race horse, Pint of Plain.
Deal maker Ace has just got out of jail after serving a three stretch in the slammer and is looking for quick cash and revenge, he figures Santa Anita racetrack, California is the place to make things happen.
The ensemble cast of rail rats, stable wranglers and Jockeys, is no less impressive. We get the acerbically rumpled Nick Nolte as Old Man Walter Smith and the nutso Richard Kind as the hyperactive Joey Rathburn. We also get John Oritz, Kevin Dunn and Ritchie Coste.
The show is Directed by Michael Mann produced by Hoffman and David ‘Deadwood’ Milch, who also heads the team of writers working on the show.
A preview of Luck aired in the US after the season finale of Board Walk Empire, recently. Crimeziners should expect slow boiling realism, cinematic horse play, and strong character driven action.
So what does David Milch know about horseracing? While creating a little show called NYPD Blue. Milch struggled with a double header drug and gambling problem. So Crimezine has no doubt he can call the shots when it comes to deep delving in the seamier side horse racing. See Luck 1/29/12 at 9pm on HBO.
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