Never one to shy away from either politics or history in his directorial choices (and often blending both, as in Good Night, And Good Luck), George Clooney is targeting another, lesser-known portion of the past for a possible future project. He’s attached to direct The Yankee Commandante.
Focus Features is in the process of grabbing the rights to David Grann’s New Yorker article, which only recently hit newsstands. The piece focuses on real-life figure William Alexander Morgan, an American citizen who assisted Fidel Castro and the Cuban rebels to overthrow the country’s despised leader Fulgencio Batista.
While Morgan achieved the rank of Commandante – the only foreigner besides Che Guevara to be awarded it – his motives were quickly questioned. Accused of working with American intelligence, he was imprisoned and sentenced to die by firing squad. He also attracted the attention of J Edgar Hoover, who tried to figure out exactly whose side he was on.
It sounds like it could be a fascinating story to unspool, even though anything to do with Castro and Cuba is likely to be highly controversial in the US. There’s no writer on board yet, so chances are this will have to cool its heels in Clooney’s development vault until he’s ready to tackle it.
Clooney most recently worked on in Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi thriller Gravity, which has yet to score a solid release date here or across the pond.