Still with a keen eye for a meaty political drama, George Clooney has picked up the film rights to FBI man Joe Navarro's book **Three Minutes To Doomsday. Smokehouse Pictures, which Clooney runs with Grant Heslov, announced the deal over the weekend.
Navarro is a specialist in non-verbal communication and body language, the author of previous works like What Every Body Is Saying and Louder Than Words. He was an FBI agent for 25 years, focusing his talents on counterintelligence and behavioural assessment and helping to found the Bureau's Behavioural Analysis programme. Three Minutes To Doomsday covers his operations during the Cold War.
The book is not yet published - although it's ready to go with Simon & Schuster - and it's very early days for the film yet. There's no screenwriter yet announced as in place, and no information about Clooney's specific potential roles on either side of the camera.
As an interesting footnote though, Navarro's collaborator on the book is Howard Means, who also worked with author Robert Baer on his memoir See No Evil, which formed the basis for Clooney and Stephen Gaghan's Syriana. On that occasion Clooney was executive producer and star, so a similar Doomsday set-up with Clooney playing Navarro isn't outside the realms of possibility.