Steve Wynn TV Drama in Development

A biopic is in development about the most influential — and now, controversial — figure in gaming history.

Steve Wynn smiles
Steve Wynn smiles at the start of his meeting with officials of the Macau Tender Committee for Gaming Concessions on Feb. 20, 2002. (Image: Associated Press)

The Rise & Fall of Steve Wynn will be adapted for the screen by Christina Binkley from her own 2018 New York Times bestseller, Winner Takes All: How Casino Mogul Steve Wynn Won — and Lost — the High Stakes Gamble to Own Las Vegas.

From Bingo to Billions

The biopic will cover Wynn’s meteoric rise from scrappy bingo parlor operator to billionaire casino mogul, and then out of the gaming industry altogether. That’s after a 2018 Wall Street Journal article accused him of engaging in a “decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct” toward female staff.

Coproducing the biopic will be Binkley, along with Scott Jay Kaplan (Queenmaker, Red Penguins) and Emmet McDermott (White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch), whose production company is called CoverStory.

“We are immensely lucky to work with Christina on this larger-than-life story,” McDermott said in a press release about the deal.

According to the release, The Rise & Fall of Steve Wynn will be “set primarily in the 1990s,” and illustrates “how Wynn’s unparalleled drive for power ultimately cost him everything, creating a vacuum of power filled by his ex-wife, Elaine.”

No distribution deal has been announced.

Wynn has denied all sexual assault accusations against him and has never been convicted of a crime. However, the controversy caused him to resign from his position as chairman and CEO of the company that bears his name. He also sold his stake in Wynn Resorts in a bid to protect its gambling licenses in Nevada and Massachusetts.

Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers entertainment, dining and gaming news in Las Vegas.

Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city’s history. (For “Fear and Loafing,” he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.)

Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post.

Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook.

Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.

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  • SL
    Skip ladoux March 5, 2024
    Haha like he's not guilty! Oj
    Reply

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