By Ryan Parsons | Image property of respective holders, Variety
George Clooney
After doing corporate thriller with Michael Clayton, George Clooney is taking the necessary steps to get involved with a legal thriller. Legal. Corporate. One has an office while the other has an office and a courtroom. Pay attention to these small differences.
George Clooney for The Challenge
George Clooney has purchased the screen rights to Jonathan Mahler's The Challenge. The legal thriller tells the story of the long campaign waged by U.S. Navy lawyer Charles Swift and Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for Salim Hamdan, the bodyguard and driver of Osama bin Laden.
The project will be developed under Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House banner. As with any project from the shingle, The Challenge has been setup as a possible directing, writing and/or starring vehicle for Clooney.
While there has been no confirmation on Clooney's exact involvement on the project, it is already speculated that Clooney will play the role of idealistic lawyer Swift.
Hamdan was sentenced Aug. 7 by a panel of military officers at Guantanamo Bay to a prison term of 66 months, including time already served. The Yemeni-born convict was found guilty of material support for terrorism but cleared of the more serious charges of conspiracy to commit murder, seen by some analysts as a victory for retired naval officer Swift's efforts.
While the case sounds tricky, it might be even trickier to get audiences to the theaters to watch a film about defending somebody close to Osama bin Laden.
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