George Clooney Set to Star in and Direct The WWII Series CATCH-22
George Clooney has jumped on board to star in and direct a new World War II project called Catch-22, which will be an adaptation of 1961 Joseph Heller novel. It will be a six-episode limited series and it's sure to make for a great and fascinating series. For those of you not familiar with the what the story deals with, here's a description:
Catch-22 is set in Italy during World War II. It focuses on Capt. John Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier who is furious because the bureaucratic rule known as Catch-22, which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.
This is such an interesting story, which is why I'm excited about the series. I think this is the perfect project for Clooney to take on. According to Variety, Clooney will take on the role of Colonel Cathcart. Here's a little background on the character:
He is a group commander at a U.S. Army Air Corps base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As such, he does whatever it takes to please his superiors—in particular, by repeatedly raising the number of missions the men have to fly to complete a tour of duty, beyond that normally ordered by other outfits. This becomes the bane of Yossarian's life, as every time he comes close to obtaining the target number of missions for being sent home, Colonel Cathcart raises the required number again. Ironically, Cathcart himself has only flown in two missions, one of which was accidental.
Catch-22 was previously adapted into a film in 1970 with Alan Arkin in the role of Yossarian and Martin Balsam in the role of Cathcart. The series will reportedly start shooting in 2018 and Clooney’s producing partner Grant Heslov will also direct a portion of the series.
Catch-22 will be the first regular TV role that Clooney has had since he starred in the 1990s series E.R.