No doubt something he’ll try and rope new best-bud Robert Downey into, Todd Phillips has inked a deal to remake James Caan classic “The Gambler” (1974).

Late-night TV viewers will recall the original flick; Caan starred as an English professor who owes the mob a great debt, he runs off to Vegas in an effort to quadruple some money his mother lends him, but the odds don’t fall in his favour. As a result, the mob ends up controlling his life.

Irwin Winkler produced the original, and he’s returning to oversee Phillips’ version – which, I’m assuming, will be slightly more comedic. Paramount Pictures are funding the film.

Martin Scorsese has briefly flirted with the idea of directing the remake- likely because his “Departed” scribe William Monahan is on script duty – but it likely fell by the wayside due to the other fifty films Scorsese has in development down there at the Jersey turnpike office.

The Hollywood Reporter says Phillips’ “The Gambler” would come second to “The Hangover Part III”, which the filmmaker begins shooting in a month.

No word on who might nab the lead in “The Gambler” (Downey? Bradley Cooper? maybe, Ed Helms?), but chances are their shoulder hair will be trimmed back pre-shoot.