Brandon Lang talks movies, sports gambling

NEW YORK - When Brandon Lang walked away from his high-stakes career in sports gambling 10 years ago, he moved to Los Angeles motivated by one goal: to bring his life story to the big screen.

Lang, 42, was a star handicapper for a top East Coast sports-betting service from 1989 to '96. Under the Machiavellian mentorship of a controlling boss, he picked football winners, showboated in expensive suits, struggled during losing streaks and was even threatened at gunpoint by an angry client.

Then he got bit by the showbiz bug. Determined to pitch his movie idea, Lang, who's engaged to a woman he met in Las Vegas, landed a gig as a golf caddy at a connected L.A. country club, where he began a fortuitous friendship with movie screenwriter Dan Gilroy. The result: last year's Gilroy-penned thriller "Two for the Money," starring Matthew McConaughey as Brandon, Al Pacino and Renee Russo. The film, which grossed about $23 million, came out this week on DVD.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Lang discussed bonding with McConaughey, how to succeed in sports gambling and pick the Super Bowl winner (though be warned: interviewed before last weekend's action, he picked the Indianapolis Colts to go all the way).

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AP: Your networking skills paid off on the golf course.

Lang: I like to say that if you give me your ear for five hours and let me talk about something I'm passionate about, I'll have you running naked down the street singing "Kumbayah." I'm a natural salesman, but I have to believe in what I'm selling because, therefore, it comes from the heart. And I believed in this. I believed in the fact that what I lived and what I did would make a great movie.

AP: Was Matthew McConaughey your first pick to play you?

Lang: Matt was my first choice, but there were a lot of young actors in Hollywood that had this script in their laps that could have said yes.... But for whatever reason, there wasn't much money attached to playing this role.

AP: There's a scary scene in the movie where a client threatens Matthew in Central Park. What happened to you in real life?

Lang: Back then, I was calling people and forcing them to (place bets). When you force people to do things, and it doesn't turn out correct, you're asking for trouble... They put a gun to my head. I really believe he may have pulled the trigger, but what he saw was he saw my heart. What he saw was I was just a robot being programmed to do something by somebody else, and I firmly believe that he saw my heart, he saw my soul, he saw that I was sorry. He saw that genuinely I'm a good-hearted kid from Michigan who just wants everybody to be happy. I believe that's what saved me.

AP: You have a new gambling Web site, brandonlang.com. Do you still pick the favorites?

Lang: It's my chance to show the world that I'm as good as I say I am. It's unconditional. You come to the Web site, you see the Web site, you give me a shot.... Judge me on a season. If you give me a season, you're going to make more money than you lose. That's the way it's always been. That's always the way it's going to be, because there's a method to my madness... I am going to lose. Losing is reality. I am not going to win every single day, so if you think I am, you must believe in the Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

AP: What are the qualities you need to be a star sports bettor?

Lang: You can't get emotional. People tend to bet their money on something, and, if it's a game and that team cost them money on Sunday, they will then turn around and go against that team the following Sunday because they're just angry. You gotta maintain your objective, and not get emotional. For me, it's 363 days a year, and I can't afford to lose that objective. I can't do it. Secondly, you have to understand so much about the line and the point spread, and why a point spread moves, and the difference between that point spread moving because it's your smart Vegas wise guy money - your big, big gamblers who know it's a bad line - or it's moving because of a public line move, which means every Joe Blow that walks into the place is betting this game because he just thinks it's a winner. You want to be with the smart money wise guys who are the billionaires for a reason and against the Joe Blow public guys who couldn't pick a winner today with yesterday's newspaper.