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Hayden Christensen to Play 'Poker Brat' in Phil Hellmuth Movie
Sat, Dec 9th, 2006 @ 12:00am
Phil Hellmuth announced that Hayden Christensen has signed up to play Hellmuth in the upcoming movie titled "The Madison Kid" which follows Hellmuth's rise to professional poker player.
Hellmuth earned the nickname 'Poker Brat' for his tempestuous outbursts at the poker table en route to being a 10-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) Champion. Because of the well known nickname, it is rumored that film producers may rename the movie "Poker Brat."
Christensen is known around the world for his role as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith. It is thought that Christensen's popularity will help the movie's success, and will help the movie appeal to younger age groups as well as avid poker players.
The biopic starts with Hellmuth in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, USA, which is where the movie's title "The Madison Kid" comes from. It follows Hellmuth as he is introduced to poker in university and subsequently drops out after 3 years against his father's advice.
The drama comes when Hellmuth battles Johnny Chan who is trying to be the first person to win 3 consecutive WSOP main events, and how Hellmuth at age 24 goes on to become the youngest World Champion of Poker in that 1989 WSOP main event.
As the big prize winner, Hellmuth took home US$755,000, which pales compared to the US$12 million prize won in the 2006 WSOP, but was big money back in 1989.
Filming is scheduled to begin in April in Winnipeg, Canada, though Hellmuth is lobbying to have the film shot in Madison Wisconsin.
Beacon Pictures will be filming "The Madison Kid" with a budget between $6-8 million dollars. The Los Angeles-based production company better known films include "The Emperor's Club", "Air Force One", and "The Hurricane."
"The Madison Kid" is being scripted by UW-Madison law school grad Bob Soderstrom, who also happens to be a friend of Hellmuth. Besides Soderstrom, Beacon Pictures chairman Armyan Bernstein is also a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate.
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