http://www.justpressplay.net/movies/movie-news/5200-kevin-spacey-playing-jack-abramoff-in-biopic.htmlKevin Spacey Playing Jack Abramoff in Biopic
Written by Arya Ponto
Saturday, 25 April 2009
According to Deadline Hollywood, Kevin Spacey is currently in Washington D.C., paying a visit to Federal Prison so he can meet with ex-lobbyist and scandal magnet Jack Abramoff. Is Spacey somehow involved in one of Jack's frauds? Nope, it's research for a role in his latest film, with his director George Hickenlooper also tagging along.
The two of them are shooting a script by Dead Ringers writer Norman Snider called Casino Jack (which was Abramoff's nickname). They've been negotiating for weeks to get face time with the imprisoned Abramoff, who is apparently a Kevin Spacey fan. That's cute.
The film is likely to cause a bit of a stir if marketed right: it's a Goodfellas-style thriller about Abramoff's corrupt stint in Washington, wheeling and dealing with members of the Bush administration. The film supposedly even involves figures such as Karl Rove, and most likely Tom DeLay as well.
Production Weekly broke news last Friday that Spacey and Hayden Christensen (who Hickenlooper worked with last in Factory Girl) are playing Abramoff and Michael Scanlon.
Abramoff would not and cannot make a profit out of the film, so why is he agreeing to help them in a creative meeting, which is what they'e doing? Looks like ol' Casino Jack just wants someone to tell his side of the story and get back at his fellow Republicans who gave him up, and what better way to talk to the American people than through a star-powered Hollywood movie, eh? Besides, lest we forget that Abramoff was once rubbing elbows with Hollywood elites back in the 90's. He produced and co-wrote the Dolph Lundgren awesomeness Red Scorpion.
Who knows... In about five years when he gets out of jail, maybe his movie would already be a top getter, allowing Abramoff to amass new fortune by becoming a Hollywood mogul. Ick.