After decades spent building a career as one of the most recognizable and respected screenwriters in Hollywood, it looks like Aaron Sorkin is finally ready to take the next logical step. The Oscar-winning scribe has brought us such films as A Few Good Men, The Social Network, Moneyball and Steve Jobs, as well as TV shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom but somehow he still has yet to direct any of his own material… not even a TV episode. That will all change with his next project, Molly’s Game, an adaptation of the memoir by Molly Bloom, a former world-class skier turned underground poker kingpin. The book synopsis is as follows:

“In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom, a twentysomething petite brunette from Loveland Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen—she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were won and lost at her table. Molly’s game became the game for those in the know—celebrities, business moguls, and millionaires. Molly staged her games in palatial suites with beautiful views and exquisite amenities. She flew privately, dined at exclusive restaurants, hobnobbed with the heads of Hollywood studios, was courted by handsome leading men, and was privy to the world’s most delicious gossip, until it all came crashing down around her.”

Sorkin signed on to write the script back in late 2014, when producer Mark Gordon first optioned the rights to the book. He then became enamored with the story and decided to make it his directorial debut. Not since Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York has such a high profile screenwriter stepped behind the camera. The movie is set up at Sony Pictures with Amy Pascal also on board as a producer. Are you looking forward to Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut?