Whoa: George Hickenlooper, the candid, acclaimed director whose Casino Jack is set to open in December, was found dead this morning in Denver. He was 47. Hickenlooper was in town for the local premiere of the Kevin Spacey-starring biopic; his cousin John Hickenlooper — Denver’s mayor — confirmed the filmmaker’s passing in a statement released this afternoon.
“Shock and sadness do not begin to describe our emotions. We are devastated,” John Hickenlooper said in that statement; another release from the mayor’s office said the director died of natural causes. “George had immense creative talents and cinematic gifts, but he was so much more than that to us and all his family. His passion for life, zeal for people and unquenchable curiosity enriched everyone who had the fortune to know him. We will miss his sense of humor, his warm character and the avid encouragement he gave anyone around him. Our hearts go out to his wife, Suzanne, and his son, Charles.”
Hickenlooper began his film career in 1988, moving between successful documentaries (Hearts of Darkness, The Mayor of Sunset Strip), TV projects (The Big Brass Ring) and indie films (The Man From Elysian Fields). Never afraid to speak his mind, Hickenlooper made little secret of the difficulties experienced while making his ill-fated Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl, from banging heads with Harvey Weinstein to his scathing opinion of that film’s self-proclaimed co-producer (and Brittany Murphy’s widower) Simon Monjack. He’d also publicly battled last year for the title Casino Jack, swatting away a lawsuit by the makers of the documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money. (Hickenlooper wasn’t afraid to deploy a few pointed Facebook status updates, either, when aggrieved.)
By most indications Casino Jack is some of the best work of Hickenlooper’s career. In the film’s first review earlier this year, Movieline praised “the kind of role that made Spacey famous — all bulletproof self-confidence and simmering, satisfied menace.” It’s since fared well at fests from Toronto to Austin. Hickenlooper was in fact in Denver to premiere Jack at the Starz Denver Film Festival, and it was there we was discovered this morning.
Condolences to the Hickenlooper family, and more on this as it develops…
· Filmmaker George Hickenlooper, cousin of Denver mayor, dead at 47 [Denver Post]
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