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Hugh Jackman stars in 'Bad Education' trailer

"Bad Education" chronicles  the scandal that rocked the Roslyn school district in the early 2000s. Credit: HBO

The first trailer for the HBO film "Bad Education" offers a sneak peek at Hugh Jackman as disgraced Roslyn Schools Superintendent Frank Tassone. The film, written by former Roslyn student Mike Makowsky and directed by Cory Finley, will air on HBO at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.

"Bad Education" also stars Allison Janney as Pam Gluckin, the school district's assistant superintendent for business, who was sentenced to 3 to 9 years for her role in Tassone's multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme, and Ray Romano as faculty member Bob Spicer. Geraldine Viswanathan ("Blockers") plays a student who breaks the story at her school newspaper.

The minute-long trailer shows Jackman's Tassone, in slicked-back hair and a dark suit, being cheered by an enthusiastic crowd at the Roslyn High School auditorium while administrators credit him with increasing the status of both the district and the neighborhood. "The better the school system," says one woman, "the higher the price-tag on the homes." The mood grows darker, however, as troubling information comes to light. Janney's Gluckin delivers the trailer's final line: "Frank's gonna fix this."

Tassone was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison in 2006 and was released in 2010, a little more than eight months earlier than his minimum sentence.

With its rock and roll soundtrack (Deep Purple's 1968 hit "Hush" is heard on the trailer) and story of ill-gotten gains, "Bad Education" looks to be pitching itself along the same lines as "The Wolf of Wall Street," another story about a Long Islander whose success was too good to be true. "Bad Education" earned strong reviews after its premiere at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, with Variety's Peter Debruge praising Jackman for delivering "an acting master class." Nevertheless, a theatrical distribution deal didn’t materialize by festival's end and the independently produced movie was later bought by HBO for $17.5 million, according to trade reports.

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