George Clooney has decided on his next directorial effort, this one an adaptation of Nick Davies‘ “Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up With Rupert Murdoch” exploring the 2011 British phone-hacking scandal surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. which ended in the shuttering of “The News of the World” after 168 years of publication.
Quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, Clooney said, “This has all the elements — lying, corruption, blackmail — at the highest levels of government by the biggest newspaper in London, and the fact that it’s true is the best part. Nick is a brave and stubborn reporter and we consider it an honor to put his book to film.”
It will be interesting to see how Clooney approaches the project. As of now there’s no word on who will write the screenplay, though I could assume it will be Clooney and frequent writing partner Grant Heslov as they will be producing the pic with the intent to start shooting next year.
[amz asin=”B00HBQ6O24″ size=”small”]Will he approach it like he did Monuments Men, a little more tongue-in-cheek, which would seem easy enough to do, or will it be a more straight forward take on shady journalism? Something tonally akin to The Ides of March or Good Night, and Good Luck.?
Columbia Pictures president Michael De Luca said of the project, “As the son of a journalist, George has a sharp interest in the role journalism plays in all of our lives — whether that’s for good, as in Good Night, and Good Luck, or for bad… With Hack Attack, George will explore the dark side of that world, a business where all of the rules of journalism are broken in the race for an easy and ever-larger payday.”
Definitely sounds like he’ll be taking the serious approach, but I do wonder if he’ll be able to get hacked celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Christopher Eccleston, singers James Blunt and Kerry Katona to play themselves in the film. I’m sure Grant is up for it.
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