George Clooney To Star In, Direct ‘Catch-22’ Limited Series For Paramount TV & Anonymous Content

George Clooney is set to star in and direct Catch-22, a six-part limited series based on Joseph Heller’s novel, for Paramount Television and Anonymous Content. The project is eyeing an early 2018 shoot.

Co-written by Luke Davies and David Michôd, who also will executive produce, the adaptation is set in Italy during World War II. It tells the story of Yossarian, a U.S. Air Force bombardier who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy — it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. If Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.

Clooney will star as Colonel Cathcart.

Clooney and Grant Heslov will direct. Richard Brown and Steve Golin will executive produce on behalf of Anonymous Content along with Clooney and Heslov via Smokehouse Pictures.

Clooney and Heslov are repped by CAA. Davies and Michôd are repped by UTA. Davies also is managed by Eva Lontscharitsch at EML Entertainment.