Based on a real school scandal, Bad Education features Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano, and more.

It’s a compelling trailer, and it’s clear that Jackman’s character is up to no good. Bad Education is based on a New York magazine story by reporter Robert Kolker, and for the most part the film is relatively faithful to its source material. The trailer, however, doesn’t offer much by way of specifics, except to note that it’s based on a true story.

Hugh Jackman plays the Roslyn district superintendent on Long Island. Over the weekend, HBO released Bad Education, a Hugh Jackman -led film about a real life school scandal that took place nearly two decades ago … HBO's new film, Bad Education, is based on the true story of Frank Tassone. Frank's final fantasy before the credits roll is of getting Roslyn High School to the #1 spot in the country (though this fantasy seems to be tangled up with his own ego).

It follows the true story of the $11.2 million embezzlement scandal in Long Island’s Roslyn district, where writer Mike Makowsky was a middle school student the time of Tassone’s 2004 arrest for grand larceny. Who is Frank Tassone? One of the strengths of Bad Education is that it's not just a simple story of an outright villain. In fact, the movie was written by Mike Makowsky, who was a middle-schooler in Roslyn Heights, NY when the scandal with Frank Tassone, the superintendent of schools, broke open in 2004. Who is Hugh Jackman’s character in Bad Education? Bad Education is based on the true story of Dr. Frank A. Tassone and a scandal he was involved in the early 2000s.