LOS ANGELES, July 4 — The writer behind The Social Network, The West Wing and A Few Good Men is taking his first shot at directing with Molly’s Game, starring Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba and Kevin Costner, set for a November 2017 release.

He created White House political drama The West Wing and put a spotlight on choices driving cable network journalism in The Newsroom, saw his first produced script — A Few Good Men — fetch a combined nine Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, and collected an Oscar for his treatment of Facebook’s early history, 2010’s The Social Network.

Now Aaron Sorkin is taking steps towards his directorial debut with Molly’s Game, starring Jessica Chastain as Molly Bloom, a one-time Olympic hopeful who organised high-stakes poker games involving several of Hollywood’s A-list actors.

It was a lucrative pursuit, but by 2013 she found herself in the middle of an FBI investigation.

Like many of Sorkin’s previous works, it’s based on existing material, in this case the autobiographical memoir Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker.

Idris Elba is to play Bloom’s attorney, with Kevin Costner on board as her father.

Molly’s Game has been announced for a November 22 US release. — AFP-Relaxnews