Leatherheads News

George Clooney is more than a handsome face. He's both a director and an actor.

The charitable hunk put both skills to the test for the upcoming movie Leatherheads. And he recently spoke to MovieWeb about the project:

How does George Clooney the director work with George Clooney the A list actor?
George Clooney: It's funny. With the three films I've directed, the other two I only had bit parts in them. I wasn't the lead. It becomes tricky, because there is an enormous amount of narcissism that comes into play. You are breaking the trust between two actors when you are in the lead. If you and I are doing a scene together and we're talking, I'm not supposed to be judging you as an actor.

Some actors do that, and they'll tell you what to do. In general you're not supposed to break that trust. The director is. If we are doing a scene and we finish, then I go, "Okay, cut. Now try it like this." It really requires an amount of trust. You have to go to each of the actors before you start and say, "Listen, this is going to be awkward." You just get it out in the open and lay it out early. You say, "It's gonna be strange all the way around."

As an actor, it's easy because I know precisely what I need to do in that scene. I've cut out that step where the director has to explain it.

Why did you choose to take the starring role in your own film this time out?
George Clooney: The truth is, I did it because I wanted to play this part for a long, long time. I always thought I was the right guy to play it. I also thought, "I'm 46. If I don't do it now, I'm done. This is it. This is my last shot at it." Soderbergh was going to direct it in 1998, when we were going to do it and I was very excited about that sort of prospect. Things kind of moved on. The script wasn't in shape.

We had an outline. We had two or three scenes that we loved and characters that we loved, but we didn't have a plot. Some years passed. I thought, "I want to do something that is completely away from what I have been doing." I like screwing with different genres. This was a world I knew a little bit about. The style of film I knew. So, I spent a summer stealing from Philadelphia Story, homaging the hell out of those types of films.

And Hail the Conquering Hero sort of helped too. I was stuck in this world where I was going to direct it, and I was going to play the lead. What I hadn't really paid attention to was that I was also going to be playing football. And it hurt. The first day I got hit by some 21-year-old that knocked me on my ass. I was like, "Okay, I'm in trouble because I've got four more months of this."

I would never, by design, do a film that I would play the lead in ever again. It was really one of those things where all of it came together very quickly. It was a dumb move in some ways because it was a little too much to take on.

Leatherheads opens on April 4.

Leatherheads stars George Clooney and John Krasinski. That automatically makes the football film funny and handsome.

But is it actually any good? That's what we wanted to know. So we looked through the views of various movie critics and came up with the following...

- George Clooney's football origin comedy starts strong but loses steam before reaching the end zone. -- Reelz Channel

- Aims only to please and proves perfectly amiable, but ultimate effect is one of much energy expended to minimal payoff. -- Variety

- Though choppy, only mildly entertaining, and not really witty, Clooney's sports comedy deserves credit for its courageous effort to recreate Hollywood's suave screwball and newspaper comedies made by Cukor, Hawks, and Preston Sturges. -- Emanuel Levy

- Leatherheads is like going to a football game and watching the players bring desks and paperwork onto the field. How boring is this movie? I've been more entertained by halftime shows. -- Kyle Smith

We've added a series of pictures from the upcoming George Clooney movie, Leatherheads.

The handsome, fun-loving actor directed this football comedy, which also stars John Krasinski and Renée Zellweger.

Here's a new poster for the movie Leatherheads, along with a summary of its plot:

The quick-witted romantic comedy is set against the backdrop of America's nascent pro-football league in 1925. George Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, a charming, brash football hero who is determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums.

But after the players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces certain collapse, Dodge convinces a college football star to join his ragtag ranks. The captain hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention.

Welcome to the team Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), America's favorite son. A golden-boy war hero who single-handedly forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WWI, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field.

This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) aims to prove that's the case.

A cub journalist playing in the big leagues, Lexie is a spitfire newswoman who suspects there are holes in Carter's war story. But while she digs, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections.

As the new game of pro-football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must both fight to keep his guys together and to get the girl of his dreams...

Leatherheads appears to be the perfect date movie.

It's about football (hear that, men?!?) and stars John Krasinski and George Clooney (ready to swoon, ladies?!?). Hitting theaters in April, here's a look at the film's leading men:

If you ask us, it should almost be illegal for George Clooney and John Krasinski to star in a movie together.

Women will be lining up around the block for Leatherheads. Fortunately, the film is about football. So both genders should be satisfied.

Here's its trailer:

Baseball has Eight Men Out and The Natural.

Boxing has Cinderella Man and Raging Bull. Heck, even golf has The Greatest Game Ever Played.

For fans of America's true sporting pastime, however, cinematic nostalgia has been far too fleeting…until now, that is. OnDecember 7th, George Clooney aims to pay homage to pigskin's early days with the film Leatherheads.

"We just wrapped [it]," Pirates of the Caribbean co-star Jonathan Pryce told MTV News. "It's about the creation of American pro football in 1926 when they brought in the rules."

The movie is directed by Clooney, who penned the script with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh.

"Clooney's wonderful," Pryce said. "I think it's going to be really good." Make no mistake, however, this is no Good Night, and Good Luck," Pryce joked. "It's a kind of screwball comedy."

So with Clooney quarterbacking the production, where do all the other stars line up? "George plays for a ragtag, over-the-hill football team. They attract [The Office star] John Krasinski, star college football player to come and play. I'm [his] sleazy agent and manager," Pryce divulged.

[There's a] bit of a scandal involved. Renee Zellweger, ace reporter, is dispatched to expose [it]."