George Clooney will return to television almost two decades after he left the hit medical drama ER with a serialised adaptation of Joseph Heller’s 1961 bestseller Catch-22, Reuters reported. Clooney will direct and star in the six-episode series.
Shooting will begin in early 2018. However, the show has not yet been acquired by a television network for distribution.
Heller’s satirical novel Catch-22 chronicles the life of Captain John Yossarian and other American soldiers in Italy during World War II as they attempt to complete missions for their army before they can return home. The only way Yossarian can avoid missions is by declaring insanity, but doing so would mean he has been rationally able to assess that embarking on a mission is dangerous. The ‘Catch-22’ rule has since become a popular way of describing a double bind.
Catch 22 was made into a movie in 1970, starring Alan Arkin and Martin Balsam. Clooney will play Yossarian’s commander, Colonel Chuck Cathcart, in the television adaptation. No other members of the cast have been announced so far.
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