Laurence Fishburne joins "21"

By: Karl Schneider
Date: Friday, January 19, 2007
Source: Hollywood Reporter

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Laurence Fishburne is in final negotiations to join the upcoming Columbia Pictures thriller, 21. He will join Kevin Spacey, Liza Lapira, Jim Sturgess, Masi Oka and Josh Gad in the cast.

The film, based on Ben Mezrich's best selling Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, will a blackjack tale set in Vegas. Fishburne will play a Vegas security chief who hunts down the group.

Shooting is set to begin next month. Spacey is producing alongside Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca.

KJ's Take: Eh, the story sounds bland, but the cast is pretty damn good. I watched the special about these kids on whatever channel it was on, interesting stuff, I just don't know how well it will translate to the silver screen. I'll probably give it a look on DVD eventually.

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Comments/Responses

exfan • Jan 19, 2007, 01:52am •

I always enjoy is presence in any movie, Special mention when is bad guy, like Assault !

mlaforcer • Jan 19, 2007, 02:30am •

This bums me out that this is the way they are going to approach this...I too watched the special of these MIT students on discovery and I thought it was amazing how they out smarted the casinos but to have the movie based on the security chief hunting them down instead of the actual story of the student taking the casinos for millions just takes away from the actual events.. these students were amazing at what they did and the life style they lived while doing it..

• Jan 19, 2007, 02:38am •

I agree MLA, but the plot description we were given is very vague, there is a chance that it WILL revolve around the students. I mean, regardless, someone has to play the security boss.

Anyways, we don't know enough yet to say what the film revolves around.

mlaforcer • Jan 19, 2007, 03:01am •

That's true..I'm hoping that most of the movie revolves around the events of the students because the hunting down of the students takes place long after there initial scaming of the casinos and from what I can remember the security chief put it all together and discoverd the scam and who the student were.. It was the FBI that hunted these students down. but that is what hollywood seems to be good at, taking facts and truths and twisting them all up and down and left ways and right ways and any other way you can imagine.

madmanic999 • Jan 19, 2007, 04:50am •

This movie could go two ways, they could play it dead pan true life drama, lay out the facts and add some character depth, or they can dress it up, use the real events as the skeleton and make it a fun caper flick. I hope for the latter....

fft5305 • Jan 19, 2007, 09:23am •

I'm sure they'll take a Hollywood approach and liberally dress up the "facts" of the "based on a true story" story.

mallet • Jan 19, 2007, 07:43pm •

Damn. I was all excited thinking this was going to be about a "21 Jumpstreet" movie. With Fishburn playing Captain Fuller. Oh well... This doesn't sound to bad.

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