The Tribeca Fest Drama Will Arrive in theaters and On Demand in 2018
Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to Abe’s Last Poker Game (formerly The Last Poker Game), coming off a premiere earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The drama from first-time feature writer/director/producer Howard L. Weiner stars Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) and Academy Award® winner Martin Landau (Ed Wood), who passed in July, in his last big screen appearance.
Abe’s Last Poker Game will premiere in 10 theatrical markets, including the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles and Cinema Village in New York, and on demand January 12.
When Dr. Abe Mandelbaum (Landau) moves into the nursing home, Cliffside Manor, with his deteriorating wife Molly, he forms an improbable relationship with gambler and womanizer, Phil Nicoletti (Sorvino). Even though at first Abe feels that moving into the home is the end of the road, he soon realizes that his life is finding a whole new beginning. Abe and Phil’s friendship is challenged when a mysterious nurse (Maria Dizzia, Red Oaks, Orange is the New Black) claims that her biological father resides in the home. Without children of their own, both Abe and Phil jump at the chance to convince Angela, and themselves, that they are her father.
“Martin Landau and Paul Sorvino give the best performances of their careers in this dramatic and comic view of life’s last epoch. The film shows that it is never too late for life and we are so excited to be working with Gravitas and their great team,” said writer/director Howard L. Weiner.
Said Gravitas’ Director of Acquisitions, Josh Spector, “Both Landau and Sorvino give such heartfelt, nuanced performances in Abe’s Last Poker Game and it’s such a unique honor to collaborate with someone of Dr. Weiner’s caliber on distributing this powerful story to audiences.”
Interestingly, first-time writer/director, Dr. Howard L. Weiner, is the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School, Director and Founder of the Partners MS Center and Co-Director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He has pioneered immunotherapy in MS and has investigated immune mechanisms in nervous system diseases. He is the author of CURING MS. Weiner also produced Abe’s Last Poker Game with Marshall Johnson, Eddie Rubin (Love and Honor) and Peter Pastorelli (Nighthawks). Executive Producers are Walter Klenhard (Lies Between Friends) and Tamar Sela (A Late Quartet).
The deal for Abe’s Last Poker Game was negotiated by Josh Spector on behalf of Gravitas and by Kevin Iwashina of Preferred Content on behalf of the filmmakers.