Clooney makes TV return

GEORGE CLOONEY ( right) will make his return to television in a serialised adaptation of Catch-22, Paramount Television said recently.

His return marks nearly 20 years since he left hit show ER to become one of film’s biggest names.

Clooney will direct and star in the sixepisode series, based on US author Joseph Heller’s darklycomedic 1961 novel Catch-22, for Viacom Inc’s Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, the studio said, adding that shooting starts in early 2018.

The show has not yet been acquired by a network for distribution but is likely to draw eager bidders given Clooney’s involvement.

Catch-22 follows an American soldier named Yossarian during World War II, who is infuriated that his own army keeps raising the number of missions that a soldier must complete to be released duty.

Yossarian’s only way to avoid the missions is to declare insanity, but the only way to prove insanity is a willingness to embark on dangerous missions, thus creating the novel’s absurd ‘catch-22’. Clooney, 56, will play Yossarian’s commander, Colonel Cathcart. No other cast has yet been announced.

Clooney broke out as an actor on television series such as The Facts of Life, Roseanne and as part of the original cast of medical drama ER in 1994, playing Dr Doug Ross.

He left ER in 1999 and since then has carved a successful career with films such as the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, Up in the Air and Gravity.

He most recently directed and co-wrote Paramount Pictures’ dark comedy-thriller Suburbicon. – Reuters from