George Clooney looks ready to join a resistance movement in this picture.
Deadline tells us that Focus Features has optioned the May 28th New Yorker article “The Yankee Comandante,” with George Clooney attached to direct.
The article tells the strange but true story of William Alexander Morgan, an American who got deeply involved in the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, helping Castro overthrow Fulgencio Batista. He was given the title Comandante, the only non-Cuban other than Che Guevara to have that honor. Then things went wrong–Morgan was accused of being a US spy and slated for execution; meanwhile, in the US, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was investigating his activities. To find out what happened, you can read the article here. It’s written by the great David Grann, which is a recommendation in itself.
No word on whether Clooney would star as well, but it certainly is an attractive sounding role. If not him, there will be plenty of others after it.
Clooney was nominated for Best Actor for “The Descendants” last year, and also in 2011 directed “The Ides of March.” He produced Ben Affleck’s “Argo,” which is out later this year, and stars with Sandra Bullock in Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi adventure “Gravity,” which has been pushed back to 2013.
