Barry Pepper, Kelly Preston and Rachelle Lafevre will join Kevin Spacey on the thriller Casino Jack, which  set to begin shooting on May 23 in Toronto.

Hannibal Pictures is handling worldwide sales and Cassian Elwes of William Morris Independent and Andrew Ruf of Paradigm represent US rights here. E1 Entertainment holds Canadian rights.

George Hickenlooper will direct the account of disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Pepper will play the insider’s protégé Michael Scanlon, who teamed with Abramoff to start a casino empire. Preston will play Abramoff’s loyal wife and Lafevre will play Miller’s love interest.

Gary Howsam and George Vitetzakis are producing from an original screenplay by Norman Snider. Hannibal Pictures’ Richard Rionda Del Castro is executive producer alongside Donald Zuckerman, Patricia Eberle, Lewin Webb, Oscar Generale, and Dana Brunetti for Trigger Street Productions.