George Clooney is a very big name on the big screen nowadays, and it's easy to forget that his big break into showbiz happened on the small screen with NBC's ER. News broke back in November that Clooney was heading back to TV for a limited series adaptation of the classic satirical novel Catch-22, but it was not known at the time just where the show would land. Now, it seems that Catch-22 courtesy of George Clooney is heading to Hulu.
After speculation that Catch-22 could end up anywhere from HBO to Netflix, news of the Hulu deal is encouraging. Hulu has been hugely successful with originals lately, and there are exciting projects already in the works, including one based on Stephen King stories and a reboot of the beloved animated series Animaniacs. It could be the perfect home for Catch-22, although THR does report that the deal for the new series has not been finalized at this point. Not all the pieces are yet in place, but there are still big reasons to be excited. George Clooney is on board as star, director, and executive producer.
While no details of the plot are yet available, the odds are good that the show will follow the events of Joseph Heller's book pretty closely. The novel follows the misadventures of U.S. Air Force bombardier Yossarian during a stint of service in Italy during World War II. Yossarian wants nothing more than to get out of the war and go home; unfortunately he can't seem to escape the frustrating military "Catch-22" that states mentally unfit airmen should not be forced to fly, but any airmen who want to stop flying in World War II are quite sane. It has not yet been announced who will play Yossarian. George Clooney will be playing a character by the name of Colonel Cathcart, who is the antagonist of the story.
Georgle Clooney was very enthusiastic about the Catch-22 series almost immediately. When he received the scripts for the six episodes of the series, he and his producing partner read them overnight. Shortly thereafter, Clooney was willing to sign on and wanted to play Colonel Cathcart. Of course, his enthusiasm for the project probably isn't hurt by his paycheck. Clooney will reportedly make somewhere around $1 million for each of the six episodes.
The Catch-22 series is made possible by Paramount Television, which owned the rights to the novel and reached out to George Clooney. The company is apparently pulling out all the strops for the series, as the intention is to film on location as much as possible in order to be accurate to the source material. Producers are even interested in using one of the few planes that survive today from World War II.
Sadly, we'll probably be waiting a while for Catch-22 to debut on Hulu. Casting other than George Clooney doesn't seem to have happened yet, and global production will undoubtedly require a lot of time to set up and complete. Fortunately, there's plenty of great TV to enjoy in the meantime. Our midseason TV premiere guide can help you sort out what to watch, and The Cord Cutter podcast can fill you in on what's streaming in 2018.
