Kevin Spacey waxes lyrical about "21"

"21", opening on these fair shores April 11th, stars Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth and the legend that is Kevin Spacey. Based on a true story, "21" sees a motley crew of MIT students, headed by Spacey's shady professor, successfully swindle millions from Las Vegas casinos.

And during the press round for "21" out in the States, producer/star Spacey was on hand to talk all about it. "I always thought that this was a story that was ripe for film," says Spacey, "I first started hearing about this more than a decade ago from friends in Boston. There was kind of this known secret, but we couldn't ever really get any information. Nobody would ever go on the record."

"21" is based on the book "Bringing Down the House" by Ben Mezrich, a bestseller and one that, ironically, has led to many copy-cat attempts to take down Vegas through the oft cited card counting technique (one that is not strictly illegal but will almost certainly lead to a lifetime ban if caught). For Spacey "21" represented something of a milestone. "This is the first major studio film that Triggerstreet has done," says Spacey, "And it's a movie that's a popular mainstream entertainment in which one gun goes off and nobody gets shot. There's no car crashes or car chases and it's about performances and it's about the mind...

I think it's in many ways a morality tale in terms of what (Jim's) character goes through," adds Spacey, "but a movie I think people can enjoy and have a really good time at"

Spacey was talking to IESB.net.