On April 22, 2007, the Harvard Bridge was closed to cars and the public in general from 9:00 AM to 9:30 PM while the new Blackjack movie, 21, produced by Columbia Pictures, was being filmed. For most of that morning, the film crew's helicopter flew around the Harvard Bridge to shoot 45 seconds of the opening footage of the movie.
The Blackjack 21 movie features the lives of 5 MIT students who are members of the famed MIT Blackjack Team. These MIT students trained hard to become card counting specialists and practiced their card counting skills in the casinos of Las Vegas with outstanding results where the game of Blackjack.
Hollywood actor, Jim Sturgess, will play the main protagonist, Ben Campbell. The other members of the Blackjack team include Jill Taylor played by Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo as Choi, Liza Lapira as Kiana and Jacob Pitts as Fisher. Kevin Spacey will play Mickey Rosa, the MIT Professor who is the adviser of the team. Lawrence Fishbourne will play a security guard in Las Vegas.
The movie is also loosely based on the book by Ben Mezich, entitled Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of 6 MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, the story of the original MIT Blackjack Team that was formed in the 1990's.
Jeffrey K., one of the original members of the Blackjack team in 1994 and the main example or model for the hero in Mezrich's Blackjack book, visited the film site both in Las Vegas and Boston. He has a cameo in the film as a Blackjack dealer in Las Vegas.
Monday, May 07 , 2007
Victor Sanchez