So says director Michael Davis in his latest column for MTV.com, who reveals that Paul Giamatti channeled none other than Bush’s ex-chief-of-staff for his turn as a baby-hunting villain in “Shoot ‘Em Up,” the balls-out action romp starring Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci.

“I tell him that I don’t want to push him in a certain direction for this part,” writes Davis. “Instead, I’d love for him to create a character beyond the page. He says he’d like his character to be based on Karl Rove — a seemingly bookish guy who exercises power behind the scenes. I like it. His character turns out to be way more flamboyant than Rove … but I like how our free-flowing conversation started making the character better than what is on the page.”

Still no word if Owen’s manic-gunslinger was based on Condi.