George Clooney has secured financing to go ahead with his cinematic adaptation of the play Farragut North, which has also undergone a name change to The Ides Of March.
Clooney is also set to star in the film as a state governor making a run at his party’s presidential nomination. Joining him in the cast are Ryan Gosling as the campaign’s press spokesman, Marissa Tomei as a New York Times reporter, Evan Rachel Wood as a campaign intern and Paul Giamatti as the manager of a rival campaign.
The original play was written by Beau Willimon, and based loosely on his experiences working on the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov worked with Willimon on adapting the script. Production is set to start in February in Michigan and Ohio.
One has to give Clooney credit, as not many actors make a successful transition to the director’s chair and I’m certainly glad that he went back on his announcement that Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind was going to be the only film he would ever direct that he made after that film’s release. Sure, his last film, the early days of football comedy Leatherheads, did not do well, but with Confessions and Goodnight And Good Luck in Clooney’s win column, it’s looking like Ides Of March is a film to look forward to.
