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HBO Calls For 'Recount' Of 2000 Vote, So Florida Cities Host Film Cast And Crew

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

Hollywood has come to Jacksonville and Tallahassee. But it's a safe bet that the results won't be pretty as far as Florida's image is concerned.
HBO Films has set up shop in the Sunshine State to film "Recount," a made-for-cable movie about the wild and wacky 2000 election that put George W. Bush in the White House.

The cast and crew will be in Jacksonville through Dec. 4. This week, they filmed scenes in the state capital.

Some of us would like to forget the year of the hanging chads, butterfly ballots and former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris' makeup nightmares.

But many of the townsfolk in Tallahassee have been trying to get a glimpse of Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, who is portraying Ron Klain, Vice President Al Gore's former chief of staff, and Laura Dern, who is playing Harris.

Also in the cast are Denis Leary as Democratic pollster Michael Whouley and Ed Begley Jr. as David Boies, the lawyer who argued for the Democrats in court.

Tom Wilkinson, an Academy Award nominee for the 2001 drama "In the Bedroom," will play former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, who headed the Republican effort to affirm Bush's victory.

British actor John Hurt portrays Warren Christopher, Baker's counterpart for the Democrats.

At last report, HBO had found actors to play Bush and Gore but had not announced the casting.

Apparently, the former candidates will be minor characters in this drama compared with Harris.

She became the center of world attention when she certified Bush's 537-vote victory after various challenges and selected county-by-county recounts that were requested by either Gore or Bush.

Dern is best known for her role in "Jurassic Park" and was an Oscar nominee for "Rambling Rose."

Harris was vilified by Democrats as the "dragon lady" and became a punch line on late-night talk shows. She was parodied on "Saturday Night Live."

The Florida Supreme Court overturned Harris' decision, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush's favor, giving him the presidency. Harris was later elected to Congress but lost her bid for a U.S. Senate seat.

This production hasn't been affected by the writers' strike because the script already was completed.

The locales in Tallahassee include the Florida Supreme Court, the Capitol and parts of downtown.

More than 300 extras where recruited to play the media, lawyers, party activists and voters who packed into the capital during those turbulent days.

Noted director Sydney Pollack had signed on for the project but backed out for health reasons.

"Recount" will debut in spring 2008, just a few months before we will be picking a new president.

One of the more unusual things about this project is that it was conceived and written by Danny Strong, a 32-year-old actor from California who is best known (if he is known at all) for his roles on "Gilmore Girls" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

On "Gilmore," he was Doyle McAlister, the boyfriend of Paris Gellar (Liza Weil). On "Buffy," he was the self-esteem-challenged Jonathan Levinson. After being possessed by a demon, fighting zombies and dealing with an obsessive, controlling girlfriend, he's probably as qualified as anyone to write about Florida politics.

Strong, who majored in fiction writing at the University of Southern California, is a California native who has said that he has a keen interest in politics.

According to HBO officials, the script focuses on "the human drama of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary event that would decide the leadership of the country."

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