While George Clooney has vacillated from acting to directing for two decades now, starting with 2002’s “Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind,” the actor/director has really picked up the pace in the last few years. Since 2017, he’s directed three films, “Suburbicon” (2017), “The Midnight Sky” (2020), and “The Tender Bar” (2021). And at his current rate, he’ll have had three films out in three years if this new project pans out like it will. Clooney already has his follow-up locked and ready to go: an adaptation of Daniel James Brown’s novel “The Boys In The Boat: Nine Americans & Their Epic Quest For Gold At The 1936 Berlin Olympics.” In development for a few years, the film is finally coming together as Clooney is rounding out his cast and prepping to go in front of cameras soon.
Deadline reveals that Aussie actor Joel Edgerton has joined the sports drama after recently wrapping on the Disney+ show “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and appearing in David Lowery’s 2021 Arthurian fantasy flick “The Green Knight.”
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Other additions to “The Boys In The Boat” include Jack Mulhern, Sam Strike, Luke Slattery, Thomas Elms, Tom Varey, Bruce Herbelin-Earle, Wil Coban, and Hadley Robinson.
They join up-and-comer Callum Turner, whose credits include the thriller “Green Room,” the “Fantastic Beasts” movies set in the Potterverse, and most recently, Apple’s WWII series “Masters of The Air” directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (“No Time To Die”) which should be out later this year.
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“Boys In The Boat” will explore an underdog story of the University of Washington men’s rowing team, who stunned the world by winning gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin hosted by Nazi Germany. Black U.S. athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the same games, further surprising the world.
MGM, Spyglass, and Clooney’s Smokehouse are partnering on the pic. “The Revenant” screenwriter Mark L. Smith is behind the script with a previous draft from Chris Weitz. Production on “The Boys In The Boat” is said to begin this month, which means we could have another George Clooney movie in theaters in late 2022 or sometime in 2023. Clooney has more directing projects in development, too, including “Calico Joe” based on John Grisham’s baseball novel, the sci-fi film, “Echo,” and it’s possible he may direct on the upcoming Untitled “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” AppleTV+ series starring Justin Timberlake.