George Clooney to Direct Film of Farragut North, Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman

Beau Willimon’s 2008 political drama Farragut North is headed for a big-screen adaptation to be directed by George Clooney, according to nymag.com. The movie, scheduled to begin filming in February 2011, will star Philip Seymour Hoffman as a burned-out political operative, a part created in Atlantic Theater Company's off-Broadway production by Chris Noth.

Rising movie actor Chris Pine (Star Trek), who played the central role of an ambitious young campaign PR man in the 2009 Los Angeles production of Farragut North, is reportedly in talks to reprise his performance on film. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jake Gyllenhaal had previously been mentioned for the star part, which was played off-Broadway by American Idiot's John Gallagher Jr.

Farragut North is set in Des Moines just before the crucial Iowa presidential caucuses. The play’s “insider” tone is helped by the fact that playwright/screenwriter Willimon worked on the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. The movie cast will also include Paul Giamatti as the campaign manager of a rival presidential candidate and possibly Marisa Tomei as a journalist and Evan Rachel Wood as a young staffer who gets involved with Pine’s character. Clooney will reportedly take a cameo part in his film.