by Larry Richman
March 21, 2008 9:25 PM

The World Premiere of 21, the official Opening Night Film of the 2008 SXSW Film Festival, took place on Friday, March 7 at Austin's historic Paramount Theatre. 21 is pure Hollywood all the way -- slick and polished, with a script that's clever, funny, and worthy of math geeks everywhere as it chronicles the true story of a group of MIT students who learned how to beat the house at blackjack. The widescreen action is as nonstop as that on the Las Vegas casino floor which provides the setting for this thrilling caper.

Earlier, I posted my review. Here are some pictures I shot at the exciting Q&A which followed the screening, at which lead actor Jim Sturgess was joined by Ben Mezrich, author of the book Bringing Down The House on which the script is based, and Jeffrey Ma, one of the original math prodigies who was the inspiration for Sturgess' character.

Pictured (from left to right) are Ma, Mezrich, and Sturgess.


Click thumbnails to enlarge