George Clooney to Star in Six-Episode Catch-22 Adaptation

November 16, 2017

George Clooney is set to star in and direct a six-episode limited series based on the Catch-22

Academy Award-winner George Clooney is set to star in a six-episode limited series based on the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22, according to THR. Clooney is also set to direct the series. Catch-22 is written by Luke Davies (Lion) and David Michod (War Machine).

Clooney will play Col. Cathcart in this story set in Italy in WWII. It’s the story of U.S. Air Force bombardier Yossarian who is trying to do what he needs to do to go home. The site explains, “The novel explored the paradox of requirements where airmen who felt mentally unfit to fly were not obligated to do so, but anyone who applied to stop flying was sane enough to fly, creating the catch-22 of its title.”

Catch-22 is produced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, though it has yet to have a broadcast home. It will reportedly be shopped in December. The novel was turned into a film in 1970 from Paramount Pictures starring Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin and Bob Newhart, and directed by Mike Nichols. There was a pilot on ABC, produced by Paramount Television in 1973 starring Richard Dreyfuss, though it never went past that stage. Clooney and Grant Heslov from Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures will direct and executive produce. Davies and Michod will executive produce. Richard Brown and Steve Golin from Anonymous Content will also executive produce.

Clooney is known for his work on the TV series ER, for which he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. He has appeared in the films Syriana, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, The Descendants, Up in the Air and Michael Clayton, for which he was nominated for Best Actor, and Argo. He has directed Suburbicon, The Monuments Men, The Ides of March, Leatherheads, Good Night, and Good Luck and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.