Legally Blonde director to bet on Vegas movie

Gay Australian director Robert Luketic, whose credits include Monster-in-Law and Legally Blonde, is in talks to shoot a feature about a group of young men who become experts in the art of card counting. The Columbia Pictures project 21 is based on Ben Mezrich's best-selling nonfiction book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

Luketic, who had been preparing to direct the big-screen version of the '80s soap Dallas for 20th Century Fox, likely would make 21 his next project. It is unclear how his negotiations with Columbia will affect his involvement in Dallas or the casting of the ensemble film. Kevin Spacey is on board as a producer of 21. He optioned the book in 2002 after reading an excerpt of it in Playboy. (Tatiana Siegel, Reuters)