Catch-22 miniseries starring George Clooney

[Mister Six]

Oh well, what the hell.

https://ew.com/tv/2018/12/19/catch-22-first-look-george-clooney-kyle-chandler/

[Shit Good Nose]

Being a HUGE fan of the film (as well as the book), and given that Clooney is still pretty handy creatively, I would actually quite like to see this.

[sevendaughters]

I am wary though Clooney did do good comic despair in O Brother so I will watch it as it's basically my favourite novel. I did like the film with Alan Arkin too, though it's not quite the book.

[Replies From View]

I'm assuming this will be a single season story rather than something that goes on and on.


Edit:  Obviously that's what miniseries means.  I am Dunceman today.

[mothman]

As 7d says, the film ain't quite the book. I've always found it a very literal and uninspired adaptation. I don't know whether that's down to Mike Nichols (who started off his directing career in theatre, and it often shows: even my favourite film of his, Carnal Knowledge, is basically a filmed play), or was just the prevailing style of the time, where the "absurdist" nature of the source material was translated into "madcap Hollywood comedy" - it's very much of a piece with It's A Mad Mad (etc.) World, The Russians Are Coming (x2), and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.

I wonder what one of the Easy Riders Raging Bulls directors would have made of it - the New Hollywood directors who were just getting started at the time. The big antiwar movie of 1970 was MASH - a Korean War Movie made from a Vietnam War mindset; Catch-22 is more of a WW2 movie made through, well, a Korean War mindset! Or a full-on 50s/60s cold war one. An Altman or a Coppola or an Ashby might have made something a damn sight more interesting.

So, I really hope the miniseries works. Worst case scenario it's terribly made and makes a travesty of the book; the presence of the likes of Clooney makes me hopeful that is going to be pretty unlikely. I'd like to see a Catch-22 adaptation taking advantage of the Televisual Golden Age and 50 subsequent years of narratove innovation.

[Shaky]

They'll have a hard time topping Arkin as Yossarian.

[mothman]

That bit they got right, at least.

[Shaky]

That bit they got right, at least.

Indeed - his is genuinely the face I see whenever I hear the character's name. The rest of the movie cast... not so much.

Anthony Perkins is a pretty good fit for his role too, mind.