When I wasn’t looking George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack went through a name change and will now be known as Bagman as Kevin Spacey stars as disgraced Washington power broker Jack Abramoff, the hot shot globe trotting Washington DC lobbyist who cut a large swath during the ethically challenged Bush era. Jack and his protégé gain momentum at every turn as they make friends and take names in Washington, gaining incredible media and voting power all along the way, but they eventually go down hard as their schemes to peddle influence take them too far and lead them to corruption and murder. Kelly Preston plays Abramoff’s wife Pam, Jon Lovitz plays Abramoff’s SunCruz partner Adam Kidan, Barry Pepper plays Michael Scanlon and Twilight star Rachelle Lefevre plays Scanlon’s fiancee Emily.
Of course, the name change is obviously due to Alex Gibney’s documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money (my review here). Metropolitan Inc. picked the film up for domestic distribution back in March and is planning an October 1, 2010 release.
You can read a much longer synopsis of the film right here, but for now, here is the trailer.
