Add another major Hollywood name being wooed by the lure of television to the list: George Clooney is set to direct and star in a limited series adaptation of Joseph Heller‘s classic novel Catch-22.
The show will be a six-episode series, and it doesn’t yet have a network yet, but with Clooney attached that is only a matter of time. The show is co-written by Luke Davies (Lion) and David Michod (War Machine), who will also executive produce. THR reports that the show will be pitched to networks in December.
Catch-22 is described as “the great anti-war novel of the 20th century; a hilarious, mad, hallucinatory black comedy”. Set in Italy during WWII, it follows Capt. John Yossarian, as U.S. Air Force bombardier trying to survive the war.
The title, and crux of the novel, comes from the paradoxical requirements for soldiers to be relieved from missions that would cause almost certain death. To be relieved from said missions, airmen had to be considered mentally unfit to fly, but any man who actually requested to be removed from duty was considered perfectly sane. Hence: catch-22.
Clooney is set to play antagonist Colonel Cathcart, who’s obsessed with becoming a general and continues to unfairly raise the number of missions it takes to fulfil a tour of duty. Grant Heslov, a frequent production partner of Clooney, is set to direct a number of episodes, with the series eyeing a 2018 shoot.
Next month we will very likely find out where the series will be airing, and it will be a coup for whoever ends up with it.
#Peace.Love.Catch22
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