Movieline Interprets the Jack Abramoff Biopic Director's Facebook Status Updates

Factory Girl director George Hickenlooper is about to start shooting Casino Jack, a biopic about disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, starring Kevin Spacey in the title role and Hayden Christensen as his associate, Mike Scanlon. Deadline Hollywood already toldjus!™ that Hickenlooper and Spacey had visited Abramoff in prison to discuss the project. Since then, via Facebook, we're getting incremental updates on his progress. Let's relive them, with commentary:

George Hickenlooper is delighted David Cross has joined the team.

May 2 at 12:26pm

Notes: Cross will play Adam Kidan, who partnered with Abramoff on the purchase of SunCruz Casinos. Kidan is currently serving 70 months in Elkton Federal Prison, where his penchant for showering in short-shorts fashioned out of an orange jumpsuit has given him the reputation for being the cellblock never-nude.

George Hickenlooper is all about the blue pages.

May 4 at 10:35am

Notes: Typically, once a script is locked for production, the first lot of revisions come on blue pages so the cast and crew can find them easily. In this case, however, Hickenlooper is referring to the government section of his telephone book, where you can learn so much about systematic corruption by simply letting your fingers do the walking!

George Hickenlooper doesn't like that a horse shit writer for the Huffington Post is accusing me of committing a felony by visiting Abramoff in prison. Disgusting...

May 5 at 1:50pm

Notes: He's referring to a HuffPo piece by Gary S. Chafetz, a former writer for the Boston Globe and the author of The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, in which Chafetz suggests visiting Abramoff in prison might have constituted a felony.

George Hickenlooper is now being told if he wants to sit with Abramoff again he needs to be interviewed by the FBI. This is not good.

May 5 at 4:32pm

Notes: His concerns are well-founded. The FBI famously waterboarded Oliver Stone two weeks into the JFK shoot, purely over his wardrobe choices for Jackie O's signature pillbox hats.

George Hickenlooper has just been told by a reliable source that the author of the article in Huffington Post is widely considered a crackpot and the author of a competing Abramoff project. Par for the course. All this felony garbage is Much Ado About Nothing...

May 5 at 6:43pm

Notes: We'd have thought the home of Candy Spelling's trenchant op-ed journalism (most recent post: "Is it Meshuga To Want My Daughter To Mesh?") would have a more stringent contributor vetting process.

George Hickenlooper just found out this clown at Huffington Post approached our production last week trying to get us to read his book. We turned him down because we didn't want to be exposed legally, or accused of taking from his undoubtedly ridiculous book. No wonder. He's angry and today decided to take it out on us on HP. What a dick.

May 5 at 7:03pm

Notes: Seriously. That's the last time we engage any of Mr. Chafetz's invitations to poke him back or throw a SuperPoke sheep at him.

George Hickenlooper is fried from location scouting.

May 7 at 2:41pm ·

Notes: Likely came after a 45-minute argument with a production designer who insisted the SkyDome simply couldn't be "dressed up to look like Cumberland Prison using $25,000's worth of white draping fabric."

George Hickenlooper is in the budget CRUNCH.

11:27am

Notes: Are you happy, now, Mr. Production Designer? You can kiss your white draping fabric goodbye.

George Hickenlooper is excited that Barry Pepper, Graham Greene, Rachel LaFevre and Kelly Preston are joining the team.

5:11pm

Notes: Seeing as they're the frosh, Pepper and Greene should prepare for a merciless naked shaving-cream hazing at the hands of Spacey and Christensen, who've taken to calling each other "Spuds" and "The H-Man."

· Spacey to star in 'Casino Jack' [Variety]