Clooney Plants Feet and Speaks Mind
Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 15, 2007
Screaming fans, roaring crowds, and manic paps, all in the same place at the same time, mean George Clooney’s close by. Fans nearly passed out with pleasure when a smiling Clooney, known for his practical jokes, planted his feet in the cement outside Grauman’s last June — wearing oversized shoes.
Unlike, say Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon who speak up on Iraq, Clooney speaks up about important issues — Paris Hilton and her troubles. “You think about it,” he mused to ABC News, “Part of this is cash in very young hands, and a lot of fame in very young hands. Because they’re doing all the sort of things some of us went through very quietly.”
Other things Clooney is going through “very quietly,” is the movie script in development for his Smoke House Productions, based on the true story of CIA fake-identity expert, Antonio Mendez, who smuggled six Americans out of Iran.
Mendez, who has been honored as one of the 50 greatest spies in CIA history, agreed to an interview with Wired magazine in exchange for sharing movie rights with Wired’s writer, whose article is the basis for Clooney’s movie.
Clooney may direct as well as star in Escape from Tehran which is described by Variety as a “dramedy.”
Think of the Clooneyesque humor that could be applied in the true story of CIA agents pitching rescue schemes such as disguising the Americans as Canadian nutritionists or schoolteachers, until Mendez proposed disguising them as employees of a fictitious Canadian movie studio, Studio Six, scouting locations for a sci-fi movie, Argo. The ruse worked and the Americans got out.
If Damon, Pitt, and Cheadle are available, this script could be changed to Oceans 14.
Other Smoke House projects planned:
Doubting Thomas – George Clooney & Grant Heslov to executive produce
Escape From Tehran - George Clooney & Grant Heslov to co-write the script. Smoke House to produce.
Our Brand Is Crisis – Smoke House to produce.
Diamond Age – Six-hour miniseries for Sci-Fi channel to be executive-produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town – George Clooney and Grant Heslov to produce.
White Jazz – George Clooney to star and will co-produce with Grant Heslov.
Burn After Reading – Smoke House to produce with Working Title Films
Leatherheads – George Clooney to direct, star and re-write script. Grant Heslov to produce.
Source: ABC News, Clooney Studio.com
Read more articles by Maggie Van Ostrand
