Casino Jack: A Screenplay by Norman Snider

From movie buffs and film students to anyone who enjoys true-crime stories or is interested in U.S. politics, this companion to a critically acclaimed biopic offers a rare glimpse into the creative process of cinema. A mix of Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, and Oliver Stone’s W, George Hickenlooper’s Casino Jack explores the complex figure at the center of the biggest scandal to hit Washington after Watergate-Jack Abramoff, a political operative who worked the back alleys of Republican administrations around the globe from Nicaragua to Angola. The screenplay begins with Abramoff’s arrest by the FBI in Los Angeles in 2005 and the Mafia-style murder of the Florida casino owner Gus Boulis, then goes back in time to George Bush’s inauguration in 2000, which Abramoff celebrates with the powerful House Leader, Tom DeLay. From there Abramoff proceeds to gain a multimillion-dollar fortune lobbying on behalf of dodgy Asian sweatshop owners and gullible Indian casino proprietors-all the while wining and dining the big players in Washington. This illustrated companion to the film features the complete screenplay in script form, a foreword by the film’s writer Norman Snider, an introduction and photo diary by the film’s director George Hickenlooper, 10 storyboards, an afterword by film critic F. X. Feeney, and more than 50 film stills interspersed throughout the text.