After opening with Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan last year, the director is returning to preside over the jury of the 68th Venice Film Festival. Following in Black Swan‘s large footsteps, Deadline announced that George Clooney‘s next directing effort, The Ides of March, has been selected to open the fest on August 31st.
Kicking off the first of the major fall film festivals, Ides is based on Beau Willimon‘s play Farragut North, and stars Clooney himself, as well as Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. Taking place during Ohio primaries, as Clooney plays a character vying for the Democratic nomination, the drama involves dirty politics and scandals.
Other rumored titles for Venice include David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method, Roman Polanski‘s Carnage, Todd Solondz‘s Dark Horse, Steve McQueen‘s Shame, Andrea Arnold‘s Wuthering Heights, Tomas Alfredson‘s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Wong Kar-wai‘s The Grandmasters, as well as Walter Salles‘ On the Road. Expect concrete news on a schedule in the coming months. In the meantime, checkout indieWIRE’s insightful piece on the Fall Festival Wishlist.
The Ides of March will hit theaters just over a month after its premiere, on October 7th via Sony Pictures.
Do you think Venice is a good launching point for Clooney’s next?