"She really found me at a point when I needed to be found." -- Jim Sturgess on Julie Taymor:

In 21, which hits theaters tomorrow, Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an M.I.T. student who's recruited into a group of Vegas card counters by a fellow student. In fact, the entire group is made up of students and its leader, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), also happens to be a professor at the University. The fact-based film was inspired by the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, and most of what you will see in 21 really happened -- with certain faces, places, names and events changed to fit a more Hollywood-ized mold. Directed by Robert Luketic, 21 also stars Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira.

Sturgess is a relatively new face to Hollywood. His first major film role only came last year, when director Julie Taymor cast the soft-spoken Brit opposite Evan Rachel Wood in Across the Universe. From there, this musician-turned-actor appeared in the recent The Other Boleyn Girl before taking on his first lead role in a major Hollywood film, 21. Upon meeting him, one can immediately tell this boy has the looks and charm to carry him real far. He's already scheduled to appear in the star-studded Crossing Over and the flick Fifty Dead Men Walking. Cinematical sat down with Sturgess in New York recently to talk about 21, as well as his blossoming career.

So even if you choose to ignore the somewhat 'white-washed' casting for the big-screen version of Bringing Down the House, if you are a fan of the book you can't help but notice that there seems to be very little that remains of the original (and fascinating) story of a group of 'math nerds' who became high stakes card sharks. Sony has just launched the official site for 21 starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey. Their site offers plenty of small video clips to watch and the usual downloadable offerings, but inexplicably they never give you the chance to play a little black jack of your own.

21 centers on "Six MIT students, in a blackjack team, [who] train to become experts in card counting and subsequently take Vegas casinos for millions in winnings. However, casino workers become suspicious and attempt to take down the team, using any means necessary." Sturgess plays Ben Campell, a numbers genius who is struggling to pay his bills. He is recruited into a team of card counters by his professor (as played by Spacey) and as to be expected, the good times don't last long. Ben starts to lose control and his mentor and friends turn on him just as the casinos are starting to catch on to the scam.

To be honest, as much as I enjoyed the book, I don't think I will be first in line for this one. Part of what made the book so interesting to me was that these were just regular people who became 'criminals'. The film seems to want to take a more Ocean's 11 approach right down to the music in the trailer, and, frankly, it's been done before. 21 hits theaters on March 28th.

It seems like just a few months ago we were enjoying the sights, the sounds, the smells and the cinema of South By Southwest 2007, but guess what? Now that it's January, the festival's only about nine weeks away! Awesome! So today we caught some slightly early news on what SXSW is cooking up for this March, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with what they snagged for their opening night film.

And that film is: Robert Luketic's 21, which is based on the book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. (You may remember Mr. Luketic from flicks like Legally Blonde, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, and Monster-in-Law.) Adapted by Ben Mezrich's book by screenwriters Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb, 21 stars Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess. (Check out the trailer right here.)

And if that world premiere isn't cool enough, festival chief Matt Dentler has also divulged the following titles for SXSW '08:

At the Death House Door (Steve James & Peter Gilbert) "A sobering and powerful story of the wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna and the Death House Chaplain, Pastor Carroll Pickett, who spent the last day of DeLuna's life with him."

Dreams with Sharp Teeth (Erik Nelson) "A documentary portrait of acclaimed author Harlan Ellison, as he looks back on his fabled and influential career as one of the world's top science fiction writers."

Flawless (Michael Radford) "In 1960s London, a talented but overlooked diamond executive (Demi Moore) is convinced to participate in a jewelry heist when a veteran janitor (Michael Caine) hatches a plan."

Run Fatboy Run (David Schwimmer) "An out-of-shape divorced father (Simon Pegg) makes one last attempt to win back the respect of his son, his ex-wife (Thandie Newton), and the community around him. All he has to do is finish his first marathon."

Wild Blue Yonder (Celia Maysles) "Celia Maysles had no idea her father and his brother Albert were pioneers of verite documentary filmmaking. Determined to uncover the secrets surrounding her background, Celia sets out on a quest to rediscover her father by using his own artistic process."

Expect a few more flashy surprises before the full SXSW slate is announced on February 5! Until then, feel free to browse through the SXSW website and decide if THIS is the year you're finally going to take my advice and attend the dang festival. (You do know it's a movie AND music fest, right? Interactive, too, and I do believe I've mentioned the indigenous BBQ more than once.)

At this point, I'm starting to think that it's contractually obligated that if either Kevin Spacey or Kate Bosworth appears in a film, the other automatically gets a part. OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but you can't deny that the two seem to really enjoy working together. Yahoo Movies is now hosting the trailer for their latest collaboration, 21, the real-life story of six M.I.T students who develop a foolproof plan to win at Black Jack. The film is based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich (and I guess I don't have to explain why they chose to go with the new title 21 -- I doubt Sony wanted their audiences getting the film confused with a C-grade Queen Latifah comedy).

The story centers on a group of M.I.T math students who along with their 'mentor' come up with a new system of "counting cards" -- if you haven't read the book and don't mind a little math in your light reading then I would definitely recommend it. Although I wouldn't recommend trying out their system, unless you don't mind the idea of getting roughed up by pit bosses.

The film was directed by Robert Luketic, who isn't exactly a household name, but is probably best known as the director of Legally Blonde. The book was adapted for the screen by Allan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire) and Peter Steinfeld (Analyze That). Joining Spacey and Bosworth are Laurence Fishburne in what looks like the role of a casino boss (better known as "the Heavy" in the flick) and Jim Sturgess as the newest member of the gang. 21 is set for release on March 28th, 2008.

Although I've never watched the show myself, according to its recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series Drama, as well as the outstanding coverage provided to us by our sister site TV Squad, Heroes is a pretty popular program with you folks at home. And, part of that popularity is due to Masi Oka's performance as Hiro Nakamura -- a "Tokyo nonconformist computer/anime enthusiast who develops a way to pierce the space-time continuum and move back in time through sheer will power," so says the show's official website.

Well, the CGI artist-turned-actor (did you know he was a CGI artist on films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the Star Wars trilogy?) is now making his way to the big screen (and in front of the cameras for a change), as Oka is in talks to co-star in the Kevin Spacey-produced 21. Based off Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House, film will tell the true story of how six M.I.T. whiz kids traveled to Vegas hell-bent on coming up with a way (mastering the art of counting cards) to take back with them as much money as they could. Robert Luketic will direct (now that he's officially done with Dallas) and Jim Sturgess will star in the lead role. Oka can also be seen in the upcoming Balls of Fury.

It's been awhile since Kevin Spacey first latched on to Ben Mezrich's novel, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, after reading an excerpt from the book in Playboy magazine. Spacey picked up rights to the book last year, deciding to produce and star in the true-life story about a bunch of MIT kids who, well, took Vegas for millions. Actually, the students won the money by mastering the art of card counting -- instead of working the strip as prostitutes -- in case you were wondering.

At the time, Shawn Levy was interested in directing after Brett Ratner (who was originally tapped to direct) left the project to helm X-Men 3. However, Levy was bounced and now Robert Luketic will be helming with principal photography beginning this February in Boston and Las Vegas. In order to separate itself from that Steve Martin/Queen Latifah comedy, as well as to shorten things up, the film will now be called 21 and Spacey has found his co-star. Jim Sturgess, who recently crossed over to big screen work after starring in several small screen projects, has landed the lead role and will play an MIT student who travels to Vegas in order to learn how to scam the joint. Spacey will act as his mentor. Peter Seinfeld and Allan Loeb penned the script, and there's currently no word on a release date.

• The Call Of Cthulhu - The H.P. Lovecraft Preservation Society, a group of dauntless fans that created the brilliant, Cthulhu-themed musical, A Shoggoth On The Roof, have created the ultimate fan film, an incredible tribute to the writer whose work seeded modern horror favorites like Re-Animator and From Beyond. Shot like a 1920's era silent film, the 47-minute feature is technically amazing, shot (in black-and-white), lit and performed like an authentic film of the period would have been (although it would have horrified people of the time right into Arkham Sanitarium.) Considered Lovecraft's most famous story, the story of a man who inherits a collection of documents detailing the ghastly Cthulhu Cult, it is very faithfully adapted, not to mention super-efficient. The title cards are in the viewer's choice of an astonishing 24 different languages, and the lush, symphonic score can be played in hi-fi and the kitschy-fun, lo-fi "Mythoscope". A skillful build and an extremely satisfying payoff (think creature design King Kong '33 style) add up to one of the smartest horror films of recent memory.

• Æon Flux - This empty sci-fi flick's listing on IMDB.com is loaded with glowing user endorsements, leading everyone else who has seen it to believe that either drugs were involved in forming these opinions, the Pod People took these users over or an army of undercover PR lackeys is spinning overtime. This cinematic equivalent of a bronzed cow pie, an unimaginative Logan's Run pretender set 400 years in the future after a global plague, stars Charlize Theron as a rebel trying to take down the corrupt government of Bregna, the only city on Earth. From the way-lazy back story title cards and opening narration to the silly costumes to the cartoonish action sequences to the awful deadpan performances, this should be called Peed-On, Sux. Maybe Theron's mother needed an operation or something, but this is a very bad and brainless example of sci-fi, a puffed-up issue movie that ultimately offers nothing but regret. Instead, check out creator Peter Chung's original, pre-anime craze animated MTV series, which was released on DVD late last year.

Depending on where you look, poker Vegas-style card games are either as hot as they've ever been, or are on the way out. Given the fact that I can't watch TV without seeing either an ad for an online poker site (that, by the way, "is not a gambling site") or that baby Phil Hellmuth whining about something, the former seems likely. However, I've also read criticism recently that television ads that use poker for a gimmick have missed the boat, and are no longer getting the responses they once did. Who to believe? Well, if you're Columbia Pictures, you hope and pray that Vegas is hot hot hot, because you've just greenlighted 21, a movie about those kids from MIT who kicked Vegas in the ass.

The rights to Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, a novelist's non-fiction look at well, what it says, were optioned by co-producer Kevin Spacey who, he wants us to know, bought them after reading an excerpt in Playboy. Because he's totally straight. Just in case you were wondering. The movie has been in the works for long enough to be associated with several directors (Brett Ratner and Shawn Levy were both previously rumored to be taking on the project), and is currently in the hand of Robert Luketic. Luketic is also directing Dallas, however, so it's unclear when 21 will go into production.