Clooney to Tackle THE YANKEE COMANDANTE

Star to direct and produce political drama.

Deadline reports that George Clooney (‘The Descendants,’ ‘The Ides of March’) is attached to direct ‘The Yankee Comandante,’ a political drama based on a recent New Yorker article by David Grann.

The article tells the true story of William Alexander Morgan, an American who, in 1959, helped Castro and the Cuban rebels overthrow then-President Fulgencio Batista. Morgan was the only American in the rebel army and the sole foreigner, other than Argentinian Che Guevara, to receive the decoration of Comandante. Shortly after, Morgan was imprisoned and facing a firing squad, charged with working for U.S. intelligence. Meanwhile, his exploits as a rebel soldier led J. Edgar Hoover and everyone else scrambling to sort out his motives and who he was working for.

Clooney will produce the film with his Smokehouse partner Grant Heslov and Focus Features.