Production Weekly is reporting that Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack have all joined George Clooney on the legal thriller Michael Clayton for first time director Tony Gilroy.
The film finds Clooney in the title role as an attorney at a high-powered law firm, he’s sort of a “janitor” who is called in to fix messes that no one else cna handle. However, when Michael’s friend and associate, Arthur Edens (Wilkinson), goes off his meds, melts down in a deposition, and starts helping the plaintiffs build their class action case against Agtek, a chemical company that is the firm’s most lucrative client, Michael has his work cut out for him. Arthur’s sudden “suicide” has Michael wondering what role Agtek in general – and Agtek executive Karen Hauer (Swinton) have played in Arthur’s death.
If a cast made up of Clooney, Wilkinson and Swinton isn’t enough for you to get excited, especially considering it was written and is being directed by the man behind the Bourne films and The Devil’s Advocate then I don’t know what more I can do to get you excited.
Filming on the feature is set to begin in January ’06 in New York.
