George Clooney has signed on to star in Men Who Stare at Goats, a new project to be helmed by his Smoke House partner Grant Heslov.
Men Who Stare at Goats is based on British journalist Jon Ronson’s book about the 1979 U.S. Army’s First Earth Battalion who train to use paranormal powers in combat. The notion is these soldiers can learn kill a goat by simply staring at it, as reflected in the title, along with learn to walk through walls, turn invisible, and other seemingly impossible skills.
The book goes on to draw a relationship between these tactics and how they evolved into todays psychological warfare, including the interrogation of Iraqi detainees. Whether the film will stray from the 1979 time frame the book is set in remains to be seen.
Men Who Stare at Goats is penned by Peter Straughan (“How to Lose Friends and Alienate People”). No timetable has been set for release.
