By Jason Apuzzo. To the left is a picture of George Clooney taken on the set of his The Ides of March (based on Beau Willimon’s play Farragut North).
The film is being directed by Clooney himself, and will feature Clooney playing a presidential candidate – a state governor named “Mike Morris” – loosely based on Howard Dean, circa 2004. Based on the poster and the title of the film (drawn from Shakespeare), Clooney seems to be associating himself here with both Obama and Julius Caesar.
According to IMDB, the film revolves around “an idealistic staffer for a newbie presidential candidate” who “gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.” So the “idealism” of this staffer is presumably bound-up in the persona of one George Clooney as the candidate.
Incidentally, the IMDB page for the film misspells the name of Clooney’s character, who is listed as “Governer [sic] Mike Morris.” So apparently this “idealism” does not involve an ability to spell.
The film will also reportedly star Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Paul Giamatti and Evan Rachel Wood – and will be released on Oct. 14th.
I’m at a loss for words here, although the phrase “jumping the shark” comes to mind. Also: looking ahead, I will make a point of never linking the words “George Clooney” and “self-aware” in the same sentence.
Posted on April 5th, 2011 at 12:25pm.
I don’t think Clooney plays the idealistic staffer. But this just sounds like a remake of Primary Colors.
No, I meant that the idealism is bound up in Clooney’s candidacy. I’ll clarify that perhaps.
“Jumping the shark?”
I was thinking more like “straight to DVD.”
… except that it will be going straight into theaters. Ugh.
Now that Obama’s re-election campaign is in full swing, the Democratic party Hollywood auxiliaries are cranking up their media machines for a new round of “contributions”. Considering how thuggish and even violent their recent “campaigning” has been, it’s worrisome that the themes of said projects are how corrupt and dishonest their opponent’s tactics are. Carte blanche for pulling out all the stops with their own efforts, I suspect.
Excellent point, K.
To quote Gandalf: The board is set… the pieces are moving