Idris Elba is in talks to star alongside Jessica Chastain in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut “Molly’s Game.”

Chastain is in negotiations for the lead role of Molly Bloom. Stung after failing to make the Olympic team, Bloom decided to take a year off before law school and get a job as a waitress in Los Angeles. Through a bizarre set of circumstances as well as untapped entrepreneurial skills, she ended up making millions by running, for eight years, the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world. Her life came crashing down when 17 FBI agents armed with automatic weapons rang her doorbell.

Sorkin is also penning the script, based on Bloom’s memoir. Mark Gordon will produce with Amy Pascal. Leopoldo Gout will EP.

eOne and The Mark Gordon Company are financing the feature.

“The casting of Jessica and Idris in the two lead roles is any filmmaker’s dream come true,” Sorkin said. “They’re two of the greatest actors of their generation, paired for the first time, and their chemistry will be electric.”

Elba starred in Netflix’s critically acclaimed “Beasts of No Nation,” which earned him the SAG Award for best supporting actor. Since then, Elba has landed the lead role opposite Matthew McConaughey in Sony’s “The Dark Tower” as well the Fox 2000 pic “The Mountains Between Us.” Elba was most recently seen in “The Jungle Book,” where he voiced the villain Shere Khan. He’ll play another baddie in “Star Trek Beyond.”

Chastain most recently starred in “The Huntsman: Winter’s War” and is currently filming the gun-control thriller “Miss Sloane.”

Elba is repped by WME, the Headshell Management and The Artists Partnership.

CAA and WME are co-reupping rights at Cannes.