BY TOM SOMACH

Just what the world needs, another poker movie.

Hollywood’s obsession with taking anything hot in popular culture and milking it until it’s dry continues with the upcoming release of “Deal,” a movie about–what else?–poker and poker players.

The film stars Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, Shannon Elizabeth and Bret Harrison and is scheduled to premiere in Las Vegas on Sept. 17 and be released nationally on Sept. 28.

Elizabeth recently competed in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

According to studio pre-release publicity, the movie “tells the story of a raw, young poker player (Harrison), who teams up with a wily veteran (Reynolds), to hone his skills (before) student and teacher have a falling out, after which they meet at the poker table in a high-stakes Texas hold ‘em tournament.”

Gil Cates Jr. wrote and directed the film.

The producers are Michael Arata and Jerry Daigle .

As has become a tired and expected stunt in such movies, real-life poker pros will play themselves in the film.

Proving once again that gamblers will do anything for a buck–even participate in what likely will be another bomb–professional poker players Phil “Unabomber” Laak, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, 2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker, 2004 WSOP champion Greg “Fossilman” Raymer and 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem, among others, will appear as themselves.

Jen Tilly, who is an actress and a poker pro, also plays herself.

In addition, television poker commentators Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton make an appearance as themnselves in the motion picture.

“It’s the poker player’s poker movie,” Arata said.

There have been a plethora of poker films of late, coinciding with the rising popularity of online poker, televised poker and the WSOP.

The films are almost always bad.

Why?

One theory says that movies about poker fail to capture the drama of real live poker, and therefore, generally fail to entertain the audience demographic they seek–poker players.

Hollywood’s last effort at making a movie about poker was a bomb of Hiroshima proportions.

That film, “Lucky You,” about the 2003 WSOP, came out in May and tanked both critically and at the box office.

It starred Drew Barrymore and Robert Duvall and featured a number of professonal poker players playing themselves.

For more information about “Deal,” visit the film’s website at www.dealthemovie.com.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.)