Are you a filmmaker looking to snag George Clooney as your star? Or are you a producer hoping to dangle a shiny project in front of him to see if he’ll direct it? Better shift your schedule to 2009, then.
Because Clooney has now booked himself up through next year and 2008, thanks to signing up for a batch of films.
Once he’s finished directing and starring in American Football romantic comedy Leatherheads with Renee Zellweger, he’ll move on to Burn After Reading, his next movie with the Coen brothers.
Early 2008 will find him starring in Joe Carnahan’s recently- announced James Ellroy adaptation White Jazz, in which he’ll play a corrupt LAPD cop set up to take the fall for a murder by mob bosses. He’s also producing that one.
And once he’s done with that, he’s sticking on the wrong side of the law, but also stepping behind the camera again for The Belmont Boys, written by Rounders writers Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The story follows a gang of thieves who meet at a racetrack and plan the perfect heist. They nearly make it – but get back together 30 years later to finish the job. Clooney will make the movie in America and Europe. Looks like he’s planning to follow old mate Steven Soderbergh even more closely than usual…