George Clooney is up for THE CHALLENGE
Topical trial of Osama bin Laden's driver and his terrorism charges, to be made into feature.
George Clooney has bought the film rights to Jonathan Mahler's legal thriller The Challenge, about the long campaign by U.S. Navy lawyer Charles Swift and Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for the bodyguard and driver of Osama bin Laden. The subject is extremely topical. As recently as August 7th, the driver Salim Hamdan was sentenced to a 66 month prison term (which included time already served) where he was found guilty of supporting terroism but the big issue was that he was cleared of causing murder. The deal which is believed to be in the low seven figures, is to be developed through Clooney's own Smoke House Pictures and is a potential writering, acting and directing vehicle for Clooney. At this point, the role of the idealisitc lawyer Charles Swift would seem a good fit for Clooney should he wish to act in the movie. Clooney has tracked the case for a long time, longer indeed since the book has been published - and was desperate for Mahler to agree to Smoke House's offer. As the book was published in 2006, it doesn't at this time (a revised edition is being written) have the recent developments of this month but presumably you have to believe Clooney will touch on this with his film. Otherwise it wouldn't be the whole story. Fascinating story and simply awesome material for one of the best dramatic movie personalities we have at the moment. May I suggest though if Clooney is uninterested in writing/directing that Michael Clayton's Tony Gilroy would do a tremendous job with this material. Who am I kidding - Clooney will all too well know that. source - variety