Kevin Spacey is what most people would consider politically involved. In High School, he stuffed envelopes for Jimmy Carter; he has stumped on the campaign trail for Bill Clinton and Al Gore as well as various democratic senators; he hosted the Tennessee Ball at the Second Inaugural for Vice President Gore. So he was surprised when he was approached about 'Recount' to discover how little he actually knew about how the 2000 presidential election was resolved. "I didn't realize how completely ignorant I was about what really happened in Florida," he admits.

After reading the script and the four books the story was based on in his preparation to play Ron Klain (Gore's former Chief of Staff and the lawyer who led the charge to contest the Florida election) he came to one conclusion: "I realized that our electoral process in the United States, which is meant to be viewed as the bastion of democratic process, is not equipped to handle margins of victory so small, or errors so big. And we haven't got it right yet. It could all happen again."

Spacey joined a team determined to create a movie that would help educate everyone about the details, without serving up a history lesson or a "boring polemic about politics. We tried to make a movie that is an entertaining, balanced account of what happened without telling people what to think."

To that end, Spacey focused on capturing the roller coaster of those 36 days in Florida from the perspective of the man who was "the first on the ground in Florida and the last to leave." In Spacey's view, the film plays more like a thriller than a history pic. "It reminds me of the first time I saw 'All the President's Men.' We all know how it ends, but it's the detail - that every time you think it's over, it's not over."

No one could have known when they started this film that the country would be in the midst of another neck-and-neck election, but for Spacey, the timing is propitious. "In many ways, perhaps we are ready to learn the lessons of this controversial election," he says. But rather than seeing a country divided, he sees a force for positive change. "What has been encouraging this year is seeing how apathy has not been the buzzword. Engagement has been the buzzword...I think the country is more ignited and interested and maybe engaged in a way in which they want to get this process right. They don't want to go through another 36-day battle for the presidency. Maybe this film will expose that there really does need to be election reform."