George hands lead role in Catch 22 to Kyle Chandler

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APRIL 13, 2018 9:30am PT by Lesley Goldberg
[size=48]George Clooney Reduces 'Catch-22' Role; Kyle Chandler Takes Over as Lead in Hulu Mini[/size]


Already directing and producing, Clooney felt he was spread too thin to take on the lead role as well.

George Clooney is reducing his role in Hulu's forthcoming Catch-22 miniseries.

The two-time Oscar winner and Emmy nominee has reduced his role in the six-episode limited series. Friday Night Lights Emmy winner Kyle Chandler will take over the part originally earmarked for Clooney, while the latter will change roles to one less demanding as he also juggles producing and directing duties. 

In the series based on Joseph Heller's seminal novel, Clooney was poised to star as Col. Cathcart, the part originally played by Martin Balsam in the 1970 feature. That will now be played by Chandler. Clooney, who made the decision to take a lesser part in what is his first series regular role since NBC's ER, will now portray Scheisskopf.Catch-22 reunites Chandler with Argo producer Clooney.


Catch-22 is the story of an artful dodger, Yossarian (to be played by Christopher Abbott, taking on the role played by Alan Arkin in the 1970 feature), a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of "Catch-22," a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule that specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which 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.  

Chandler's Cathcart is the commanding officer who continues to send Yossarian out on missions. The character takes himself very seriously. Clooney's Scheisskopf is a training commander at cadet school in California. He's ambitious, humorless, inept, angry, sadistic — and above all else, obsessed with parades and winning parade tournaments. At cadet school he makes the men’s lives a living hell. Deep down he’s just an angry idiot, so there’s no real danger he’ll ever be sent overseas. And then: he is sent overseas. As the head of operations for the entire Mediterranean Theater. And straight back into Yossarian’s life.


Chandler received back-to-back Emmy nominations for his lead role in Netflix's since-canceled drama Bloodline. His TV credits include Early Edition and an Emmy for guesting in Grey's Anatomy. On the film side, he next appears in Universal's Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and Godzilla. His feature credits include Game Night and Super 8. He's repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Hulu landed Catch-22 — with Clooney attached to star — in a competitive situation with multiple outlets bidding. Clooney, whose paycheck for each of the six episodes is said to be in the $1 million ballpark, exec produces the Paramount Television and Anonymous Content drama alongside co-writers Luke Davies (Lion) and David Michod (War Machine). Clooney and his Smokehouse Pictures producing partner Grant Heslov (Good Night and Good Luck, Argo, The Ides of March) will co-direct and executive produce. Anonymous Content's Richard Brown and Steve Golin also exec produce. Ellen Kuras recently joined the series and will produce and direct two of the six episodes. Hugh Laurie co-stars as Major de Coverley.


Paramount Television owned the rights to Heller's 1961 satirical novel and developed the series under head Amy Powell, who identified the book as one of the first projects she'd like to take on since being tapped to run the studio. The project, taken out in December, drew interest from multiple SVOD outlets, with Hulu emerging on top. (The series is closed-ended and will tell a full story over six episodes; there will not be a second season.)

Powell sent all six scripts to Clooney and Heslov. They read them overnight. That led to a lunch with Powell, Heslov and Clooney, in which the actor asked if he could play the character Col. Cathcart. "He had incredible instincts on the material," Powell recalls of Clooney. "He talked about how he wanted to direct, what locations could be used and how he wanted to cast fresh faces to play the show's young soldiers. It was a love fest."  

Paramount TV and Clooney's plan is to make Catch-22 a global story and shoot on location in a bid to be as accurate to the source material as possible. Producers also want to use one of the handful of surviving World War II planes. (Davies and Michod went for a flight in one of them as research.)

it's me wrote:Good decision

it's me wrote:To have less stress

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Kyle Chandler replaces George Clooney in Catch-22 lead role

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DAVID CANFIELD 
April 13, 2018 AT 01:24 PM EDT
Kyle Chandler is going from Coach to Colonel.
The Emmy-winning actor has been cast as the uber-serious Colonel Cathcart, a lead role in Hulu’s upcoming adaptation of Catch-22, EW has confirmed. The limited series is set to be produced and directed by George Clooney and his creative partner Grant Heslov; Clooney was originally slated to play Cathcart as well, but decided to step aside out of fear of spreading himself too thin, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Instead, he’ll play the supporting part of training commander Scheisskopf. He and Chandler will star opposite the previously-cast Christopher Abbott (James White) and Hugh Laurie (House).
Co-adapted by Luke Davies and David Michôd, the six-episode Catch-22 is based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name. It tells the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Abbott), a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, 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 which 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.
Chandler, whose beloved Friday Night Lights turn won him the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series, most recently earned acclaim for his leading role in Netflix’s Bloodline. On the movie side, he stars in La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s next film, First Man, a biopic of Neil Armstrong.
Hulu has not yet announced a premiere date for Catch-22.

Donnamarie wrote:I’ve also seen the Nespresso ad with Andy Garcia.  It’s been playing here for the last few months.

Seems George made a smart move taking on a lesser role to focus on his direction. George is a terrific actor.  He nails almost every role he takes on.  Beyond his acting there have been ups and downs.  I think he is still   honing his craft as a director.  As long as he can I think he will keep making movies he wants to make, even if they don’t bring in big box office bucks or have broad appeal.

LizzyNY wrote:It always annoys me when one actor is blamed for the failure of a film. There are hundreds of people involved, from the cast and crew to the publicity and distribution teams. Even if the actor being blamed (usually the "star") does a really awful job, where was the director? If the performance stinks aren't they at least partly to blame? And what about the editors? And the writers? IMO when a film tanks there's plenty of culprits to blame.