Oscar Isaac is cementing his place as one of Netflix’s most pivotal stars. The actor has been cast in the lead role of an untitled Las Vegas casino drama and simultaneously struck a first-look production deal with the streamer, packaging two of the industry’s most anticipated announcements into a single move that signals how seriously Netflix is investing in him.
Isaac will play Robert “Bobby Red” Redman, president of the most sought-after hotel-casino in Las Vegas, a man forced to execute high-risk maneuvers to hold his position and seize more territory in a city where power is always provisional. The show centers on “the high-stakes, sharp-elbowed present-day Las Vegas casino business, which is a modernized but still dangerous version of the legendary city.” Netflix ordered eight episodes last December.
The series comes from Billions co-creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who write and serve as showrunners. It marks their first series since Billions wrapped its seven-season run on Showtime in 2023. Martin Scorsese — who directed the 1995 film Casino and knows the terrain as well as anyone in Hollywood — executive produces via his Sikelia Productions. Netflix developed the concept after Koppelman and Levien brought a present-day casino idea to the table; the current series bears no narrative connection to Scorsese’s 1995 film.
Director J.C. Chandor, who previously worked with Isaac on A Most Violent Year and Triple Frontier, will helm the first two episodes, reuniting a pair with established creative chemistry.
Isaac’s casting follows a stretch of six months during which his Golden Globe-winning performance in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and a widely praised turn opposite Carey Mulligan in Beef Season 2 strengthened an already productive relationship with Netflix. A third Netflix project, Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante, is also set for release later this year.
Under the first-look deal, Isaac’s production company Mad Gene — which he runs with filmmaker Elvira Lind and producer Gena Konstantinakos — will develop film and television projects exclusively for the platform. Production on the Vegas series is planned for this summer.
The series rounds out its creative bench with Julie Yorn and Rick Yorn for Expanded Media, Paul Schiff, Beth Schacter, and Kerry Orent as co-executive producer. Isaac himself joins as an executive producer alongside the writing team.
