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By JENNY HONTZ,
February 3, 1999
George Clooney is writing and executive producing “Kilroy,”
a single-camera comedy for Warner Bros. TV and HBO, which has
ordered a pilot and six scripts. “Kilroy” is the first
project to go into production under his Maysville Pictures banner.
Clooney’s partner, Matt Adler, is co-creating and writing
“Kilroy,” and Richard Day (“The Drew Carey Show,”
“The Larry Sanders Show”) is the executive producer,
show runner and head writer.Master storyteller
“Anyone who has ever worked with George knows he’s a
master storyteller,”said WB TV prez Tony Jonas. “We’re
thrilled he’s decided to use that skill in written form.”
“Kilroy” is a realistic comedy with no laugh track about
a 22-year-old aspiring actor trying to make it in Hollywood. It
will feature the young actor visiting real TV sets for actual
guest appearances on currently running shows. “You’ll
see him do work on a show, and he’ll actually be on the show,”
Clooney said.
Blurring the line
While “Kilroy” is a comedy, Clooney said he wants to
make it as realistic as possible, similar to “Larry Sanders,”
which blurred the line between fiction and reality. The series
will be semi-autobiographical and will draw on the experiences
Clooney and his actor friends had early in their careers.
Clooney said he’s hoping to lure actors such as “ER”
co-star Anthony Edwards to help write episodes based on their
lives, and he’s talking to film directors he’s worked
with about helming episodes. Clooney and other actors will make
guest appearances, too.
Warner Bros. TV and Maysville plan to cast unknown actors.
High risk
“Kilroy” was in development at NBC, but Clooney wasn’t
happy with the network’s rewrites, and HBO was willing to
take the project in its original form. Clooney acknowledges that
a single-camera comedy about the insides of Hollywood is a risk.
“It’s pushing the envelope,” he said. “If
I’m going to do TV, I’ve got to shake it up a little
bit. I grew up in TV, and if you don’t shake it up, TV is
just going to get whipped to death.”
Maysville has an exclusive deal with Warner Bros. TV and first-look
deal with CBS, and Clooney has several projects in development
at the Eye web. CBS has ordered a script for a mafia drama called
“Blood Brothers,” but the net
hasn’t yet ordered a pilot, and there’s a good chance
another project will fulfill his 13-episode commitment.
Clooney will appear onscreen in a live, black-and-white remake
of his favorite film, “Fail-Safe,” at CBS. He may also
appear in an Eye telepic he’s producing called “Murrow
and Me,” which is about Edward R. Murrow’s fight with
Joe McCarthy in the 1950s.
While Clooney clearly isn’t looking to telepics for his next
acting gigs, he’s happy to appear in projects that seem challenging.
“I like to do stuff that’s interesting and fun and sort
of sticking my neck out,” Clooney said. |
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LANGE LANDS
‘KILROY’ LEAD: Actor Niklaus Lange has landed
the title role in the George Clooney-created series "Kilroy,"
and found out in a manner dramatic enough to make a possible plotline
for the series.
"Kilroy" is a Warner Bros.-produced comedy for HBO that
focuses on an aspiring actor who gets bit parts on real shows.
Clooney will exec produce the pilot through his Maysville Pictures,
and cowrote the pilot with Matt Adler. Lange is a lot like the
title character, having played the lead in the indie film "Defying
Gravity" and doing roles in series and indie films while
supplementing his income waiting tables.
Lange was among a bunch of actors Clooney auditioned for "Kilroy,"
and that night, after the audition, Lange went back to his waiter
job at the L.A. eatery Atlantic. Clooney came in and when Lange
walked up to the table, Clooney told him, "Hey, you’re
my Kilroy."
Lange is a waiter no longer, and is now filming a pilot in which
his character meets Pamela Anderson and gets a bit part on "VIP."
He’s agented by Metropolitan and managed by Misty D’Amore
of Integrity Management. |
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The Catcher Was A Spy
Warner Bros. is in final talks to pick up the espionage thriller
“The Catcher Was a Spy” as a vehicle for George Clooney
to star, with Clooney, Robert Lawrence and Andrew Lazar producing.
The project had been languishing in development
at Miramax, but the deal lapsed recently. Clooney has shown
serious interest in the last few weeks and took the potential
star vehicle into Warner Bros. with his Maysville Prods. and
Lazar’s Mad Chance Prods. attached.
Stan Chervin, who is currently scripting “Around the World
in 80 Days” for Warner, will pen the script. Pic,
based on Nicholas Dawidoff’s book, is a true story about
Moe Berg, a 1930s ballplayer for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who was
recruited as a spy by the Office of Strategic Services (which
later turned into the CIA).
In addition to taking undercover photos in Japan while on a
tour of the Orient with Babe Ruth in the 1930s, the book alleges
Berg later was assigned to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, who
was developing the nuclear bomb for Germany.
The project was brought into Clooney and Lawrence’s Maysville
Prods. by senior VP of development Ben Cosgrove.
Warner exec VP Kevin McCormack is the exec on the project.For
Lazar, the baseball spy film is among a slew of projects he’s
set at Warner Bros. under his Mad Chance banner.
Lazar also has “Space Cowboys,” the drama written
by Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner, which will star Clint Eastwood
and Tommy Lee Jones, with Eastwood directing and producing with
his Malpaso Prods.
Lazar’s also got “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,”
a Charlie Kaufman-scripted adaptation of Chuck Barris’
memoir, which purports to reveal that the game show magnate
and creator of “The Gong Show” was merely a cover
for his real job bumping off baddies as a government agent.
Warner Bros. has just renewed its first-look deal with Lazar
for three more years. Said WB president of worldwide theatrical
production Lorenzo di Bonaventura: “We are very pleased
to continue our relationship with Andrew and Mad Chance, which
has resulted in two excellent films going into production and
several others on the fast track. Andrew’s genuine enthusiasm
for making movies is evident in the high quality of his material
and his outstanding efforts in moving projects forward.”
Lazar also has films at other studios, with the teen comedy
“10 Things I Hate About You” opening today from Buena
Vista, and a fall date set for the New Line drama “The
Astronaut’s Wife,” which stars Johnny Depp and Charlize
Theron, with Rand Ravich writing and directing. Lazar just began
production on the indie drama “Panic,” which stars
William H. Macy, Neve Campbell and Donald Sutherland.
Jody Hotchkis of Sterling Lord Literistic in New York repped
Dawidoff on the deal. Indie Jon Klane repped Chervin. Clooney
was repped by CAA.
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NEW YORK —
After a weekend meeting with director Wolfgang Petersen, George
Clooney has signed to star in “The Perfect Storm,” the
Warner Bros. adaptation of the Sebastian Junger nonfiction bestseller
about the doomed fishing boat Andrea Gail. His participation is
subject to the studio being able to make a deal on the film, which
will be produced by Paula Weinstein, Barry Levinson and Gail Katz.
The drama, penned by William B. Wittliff, tells the true story
of the ship that got caught in one of the century’s worst
storms. Even though the crew perished in waves that reached 100
feet high, Junger wove together a breathtaking tale involving
the fishermen, their families and the valiant attempts to rescue
the seafarers.
With Clooney aboard to play the ships captain, the studio is also
in talks for Ben Affleck to play the other big role of a fisherman
on the boat.
Like the storm in the story, Clooney materialized very suddenly.
Wittliff’s adaptation of a difficult-to-adapt book helped
WB land the perfect director in Petersen, whose logistically challenged
action hits include “Das Boot,” “Air Force One,”
“Outbreak” and “In the Line of Fire.”
Since then, the project has been considered a magnet for macho
leading men, with both Nicholas Cage and Mel Gibson attached at
one point. But studio determination to keep what’s already
a costly pic from going overboard led to
a couple of big fish getting off the hook. Enter Clooney, who,
after starring in the critically acclaimed “Out of Sight,”
exited his role in “ER” to star in the David O. Russell-directed
WB pic “Three Kings,” along with Mark Wahlberg and Ice
Cube in a film that opens in the fall. |
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