After directing six movies, Clooney shepherds Joseph Heller's 1961 classic to the small screen. It’s the day before his 58th birthday when George Clooney phones me from a car as he heads away from “a production meeting sitting with 40 people asking you for things.” As usual, he’s juggling: It’s what this admitted workaholic loves. Free from any financial concerns (he and partner Rande Gerber sold their tequila company Casamigos for $1 billion in 2017), Clooney can do whatever he wants. Lay $1 million in $20 bills on each of his 14 closest friends. Hang with Amal and his twins in Italy. Shoot a dozen Nespresso commercials and funnel cash to various charities. Ramp up movies for Smokehouse’s new two-year first-look deal at MGM. Finish an eight-part Netflix series on Watergate. Launch his next directing gig, the long-awaited John DeLorean biopic. He may or may not take on the title role. That’s his call. He’s in charge. Read More: George Clooney AFI Tribute: Cate Blanchett, Laura Dern, and More Celebrate (and Tease) the Prankster Actor Related 'False Positive' Trailer: Justin Theroux and Ilana Glazer Star in A24's Spin on 'Rosemary's Baby' 'Marvel's M.O.D.O.K. ': Animated Show Has Plenty of Jokes -- but Few Laughs Related 2021 Emmy Predictions: Who's Ahead in Every Category at the Primetime Emmy Awards? Emmy Predictions 2021: Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series -- Good Luck Choosing, Voters Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock And that’s what returning to television 25 years after “ER” gives him. On May 17 on Hulu, Clooney debuts “Catch-22.” The network was willing to back a big-budget six-part limited series adapted from Joseph Heller’s satiric 1961 World War II classic, along with producers Anonymous Content and Paramount Television, which held the rights to the novel thanks to the 1970 Mike Nichols comedy. “Catch-22” could prove to be serious Emmy bait for the popular Hollywood writer-producer-director-star. So far, reaction is good. That’s partly because, although Clooney initially evinced no interest in the project, it was dead-on casting — in more ways than one. Here’s why “Catch-22” is the perfect George Clooney vehicle: Warner Bros TV/Amblin TV/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock He likes absurdist satire. The whole point of “Catch-22” is to reveal, in all its absurd glory, the rampant insanity of sending humans to war to kill other humans. As soon as Clooney and his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov (who also executive produces, acts and directs two episodes) read the script by Oscar-nominated Luke Davies (“Lion”) and “Animal Kingdom” writer-director David Michôd (who left to direct another project), they were enthusiastically on board. That’s because the movie isn’t just about World War II. It’s about corporate greed and the burgeoning military industrial complex (see Daniel David Stewart’s entrepreneurial mess officer Milo Minderbinder). It’s about the crazy lengths people will go to look good to their bosses (see Kyle Chandler’s apoplectic Colonel Cathcart), no matter how illogical their actions (see Lewis Pullman’s ludicrously promoted Major Major Major Major). The infamous Catch-22, for example, is a bureaucratic rule explained to bombardier John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), who is trying dodge missions by reason of insanity. A concern for one’s own safety in the face of immediate danger, Doc Daneeka (Heslov) tells him, is the process of a rational mind, while a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions. A request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved. “It was not an easy project to get made,” said Clooney. “It took balls for Hulu to make a period classic novel like this, which is tricky. You can get into trouble with the complicated tone. There’s fun in it, but not a lot of likable people. The lead character is an unreliable jerk at times.” It was a challenge to find an actor to carry off Yossarian, who’s in every scene, constantly running away from danger and far from heroic. Clooney wanted to find a young Sam Rockwell, the star of his 2002 directorial debut “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” “He’s the perfect actor who can do comedy and drama,” Clooney said, qualities he also saw in “Girls” star Christopher Abbott. Rethinking “Catch-22” in six one-hour TV episodes allows Heller’s characters and stories to play out in full. “It gives you the ability to care about each of these characters you are going to kill,” said Clooney. “It was a great luxury in storytelling. To watch my friend Mike [Nichols’] movie again, that was one of the difficulties: when you are killing a bunch characters you haven’t gotten to know, you can’t relate to them enough. Here you can see Nately fall for a lady of the evening. Getting to know the different characters and then have them not make it was important to us.” Heller holds up after 40 years. “We forget how absurd it is that old people make the decision and young people have to go kill each other,” Clooney said. “There is an absurdity to it all, as absurd as everything going on today. Heller really captured that. We loved the scripts, we worked on the endings a bit, so they glide to the next.” Clooney was worried that Major Major, for example, might come out dated or camp, but Lewis Pullman (son of Bill Pullman) “made made it not feel like farce,” said Clooney. “It’s a testament to his acting that he made it work.” When they screened the first episode, Clooney and Heslov had to remind Hulu that while Yoyo starts out unlikable, he has to grow into what he becomes at the end. “We treated it like a six-hour movie,” Clooney said. “It has to build somewhere. We have the confidence to say he’ll do some rotten things and earn his compassion along the way.” The final episode delivers an heroic Yossarian with a soldier dying in his arms. “We know the story has a specific pattern,” said Clooney. “He does end up losing his mind and naked. We had to earn that somehow. Chris shows off his chops in that scene. We got in the back of the plane and started shooting, covered with sweat and fake blood, no breaks: ‘we’re in here and we’re not going to let it stop now. '” Universal Pictures He likes to play stupid buffoons. At first Clooney, who loved his looney roles in the Coen brothers’ “Burn After Reading,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “Hail, Caesar!”, was planning to play the juiciest crazy madman in the series, the explosive Colonel Cathcart, but passed that plum leading role to Kyle Chandler, who he had worked with on “Argo,” taking instead the colorful crazy madman role — with less screentime than Cathcart — of Major Scheisskopf. That’s the officer who memorably demands that Yossarian (who screwed his wife) drop his pants so that he can personally check his wounded scrotum. And promptly sends him back in the air. Poor Yossarian is a man whose missions, it seems, will never be accomplished. Philipe Antonello / Hulu As Cathcart, Chandler ran with the ball. “Kyle’s part is immensely larger by leaps and bounds,” said Clooney. “Early on I saw that I didn’t have the bandwidth to be producing, directing and acting in every single episode. So Kyle came on board. He usually plays an earnest, straightforward, trustworthy guy. This is a loud, angry buffoon! The first day of shooting was his first scene, with a gun: we all started howling. I have never seen Kyle do anything like this. He’s so oddly, naturally doing crazy lunatic. He went for it, hit the gas pedal. Our rule was to give Kyle more close-ups than I give myself.” Clooney also got a kick out of hanging with “Seven Beauties” Oscar nominee Giancarlo Giannini. “We’re on set in Sardinia, we had 200 extras and 150 crew members, it was as if the king had walked in, everyone reacted to him like a proper Italian movie star.” Philipe Antonello / Hulu He likes a well-mounted period piece. “Catch-22” boasts sumptuous production design and classic cinematography. “It looks good,” said Clooney, who hired Martin Ruhe, his D.P.<doc-sep>George Clooney: 'The best projects are going to streaming sites' Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Article content George Clooney has started taking his projects to streaming sites after realizing films like Michael Clayton and Good Night, And Good Luck wouldn’t get green-lighted at the major studios. The actor and director will launch his TV adaptation of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 on Hulu later this week and admits the service and Netflix and Amazon will be high on his list of go-to streaming juggernauts as he pitches future projects, noting the studios behind some of his biggest dramatic films are no longer interested in making those types of movies anymore. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or George Clooney: 'The best projects are going to streaming sites' Back to video “The studios are less and less telling the kinds of stories that I like to tell,” Clooney tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Mid-range or even small budget. “Warner Brothers isn’t going to make Good Night, and Good Luck now; they’re not going to make Michael Clayton, quite honestly, now. So (projects like those) are going to end up at Hulu or Netflix or Amazon or Apple or one of those places.” Ironically, Clooney was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his title role in Michael Clayton and he also landed a nod for directing Good Night, and Good Luck.<doc-sep>HOLLYWOOD (KABC) -- It began as a satirical war novel. Then, in 1970, it became a film. And now, "Catch-22" is a six-hour miniseries with George Clooney in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes; he's one of the directors, executive producers and stars. "The nice thing that's happening in television is they're not forcing you to say 'let's make it Oceans 11 with every star in the world,'" said Clooney. "You can have people that people don't necessarily know. That's a very good thing. I think Chris Abbott is going to be a very big star from this. ""We all knew it was going to be one of the projects that we'd remember forever and none of us took it for granted," said Abbott.Abbott and his co-stars feel being a part of this project is the opportunity of a lifetime, thanks, in part, to Clooney. "You put yourself on tape, it goes in a stack in a pile, you hear George Clooney liked it and wants you to come to Italy for five and a half months," said Jon Rudnitsky. "There's nothing like that. ""Four or five months before I did this, I was working in my hometown mall in a kiosk selling stuff," said Daniel David Stewart.Clooney believes making "Catch-22" into a limited series rather than a two-hour movie was the right way to go. "It's a big book. It's a long story. You need to get to know people before you kill them, you know what I mean," laughed Clooney. "Catch-22" airs on Hulu beginning May 17.<doc-sep>
There are certain books that seem to strike fear into the hearts of screenwriters and Hollywood producers — and with good reason. Moby Dick and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road must rank high on the list; so does Joseph Heller’s World War II novel, Catch-22. When Mike Nichols took a stab at Heller’s classic in 1970, he had everything you can ask for. Buck Henry wrote the script, Aaron Arkin starred as Yossarian, and Jon Voight played Milo. (Orson Welles and Tony Perkins also starred.) Yet reviews labeled it “a disappointment,” something Nichols didn’t get very often. In a new series coming to Hulu, George Clooney had another go at Heller’s novel, but he also had more room to work with. Rather than trying to pack 450 pages into two hours, Clooney and his team got about six hours’ worth of screen time along with a solid budget. Clooney co-stars, executive produces and directs two episodes (as does Grant Heslov) of Catch-22. Here’s when you can watch it on Hulu. ‘Catch-22’ premieres May 17, with all 6 episodes available immediately. Clooney as Lieutenant Scheisskopf in ‘Catch-22’ | Philipe Antonello/Hulu The new version of Catch-22, produced by Barbara Hall (Big Little Lies) along with Heslov and Clooney, goes live on Hulu May 17. As viewers get with a new Netflix production, all six episodes of the series will be available that same day. Christopher Abbott, best known for his recurring role on Girls, plays Yossarian, the lead. Kyle Chandler, of Friday Night Lights and First Man fame, plays the deranged Colonel Cathcart. Clooney tackled the role of Lieutenant Scheisskopf, another military madman in the tale. Fans of Hugh Laurie will get a look at the actor as the shadowy Major de Coverley, a man who manages to unnerve everyone around him. (Given this group, which includes the plotting Milo, that’s saying something.) Martin Delaney (Towser), Graham Patrick Martin (Orr), and Tessa Ferrer (Nurse Duckett) also appear in the production, which was filmed on location in Sardinia, Italy. Clooney recommends watching multiple episodes at a time. Hugh Laurie as de Coverley in ‘Catch-22’ | Philipe Antonello/Hulu It’s unusual but welcome to get tips from stars on how they recommend watching their productions. In Clooney’s case, the star suggested going on a binge to get into the material. “I think you have to watch a couple in a row,” he said at the show’s premiere. “What Grant did so beautifully with this [first] episode is hard because you have to … set it all up to get to know the characters. It gets easier to know the characters and easier to tell the story as it goes on.” As you can tell from his comments, Clooney went all-in with the production of Catch-22. While he originally planned to play the more prominent role of Cathcart, his behind-the-scenes duties forced to take a smaller on-screen presence. For those worried about after-effects of his scooter crash during the shoot, Clooney appears to be in great shape. We’ll soon be able to see if his adaptation of Catch-22 turned out the same. Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!