George Clooney returns to TV with Catch 22 limited series
According to Deadline, the six-part series will be based on Joseph Heller’s novel and will be produced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content with an early 2018 shoot date. The series will follow Clooney as Colonel Cathcart 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.”
The series is definitely something right up Clooney’s alley as he as starred in other war time projects such as The Monuments Men. The series sounds like we are going to be on the edge of our seats with this dramatic series. The show appears to have a lot of depth to it in terms of storytelling, meaning they have a lot of avenues to play with. The only downside is that the writers are going to have to pack a lot in to six parts. The good news is that it will be six parts of nothing but exciting, forward-moving drama, which always fairs well with audiences.
The project also marks the return of Clooney two decades after he left the acclaimed series, ER. Will Clooney have another successful series? Only time will tell, but we think he’s on the right path. Clooney is set to direct alongside Grant Heslov and Richard Brown and Steve Golin will executive produce on behalf of Anonymous Content along with Clooney and Heslov via Smokehouse Pictures.
This story was written by Samantha D’Amico. If you want to follow her on Twitter, you can do so at SAM_iamXO. (Photo: Paramount Television)