As befits a man who was the driving force behind the Ocean’s trilogy, George Clooney knows a thing or two about all-star casts.
That said, even he must be mightily impressed by the all-star line-up assembling for his latest picture, The Men Who Stare At Goats.
For starters, there’s Clooney himself – and he was joined today by Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, who have all signed on to the black comedy, based on the book by Jon Ronson.
The film is just the latest movie to address the situation in Iraq, but it’s a good bet that no other Iraq movie has explored the ground that The Men Who Stare At Goats will cover: in other words, the development of psychic warfare. Told you.
McGregor – who’s putting together quite an impressive run of films of late, what with this, Angels & Demons, Amelia and I Love You, Phillip Morris – will play Bob Wilton, a desperate reporter (is there any other kind?) scrambling around for a story in wartorn Iraq.
Then he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), who claims to be a former US army psychic soldier, reactivated after 9/11. Together, the two men go on an odyssey throughout Iraq that will take them to the heart of the Army unit that has been tasked with creating soldiers blessed with paranormal powers.
And on that odyssey, they will meet Bridges, as Bill Django, the founder of the psychic programme, and Spacey as Larry Hooper, a former psychic solider now running a prison camp.
So, you could say that this one is political. Ahem. But it could also be a cracking black comedy, of the type rarely seen – although often attempted – since Dr. Strangelove.
Grant Heslov, Clooney’s producing partner, will direct, from a script by Peter Straughan. Filming will start in October.