George Clooney to Star in THE AMERICAN

Focus CEO James Schamus announced today that Academy Award winner George Clooney will star in the title role of The American for director Anton Corbijn (Control). Focus Features holds worldwide rights to the suspense thriller, which begins production this week on location in Italy. 

The screenplay by Rowan Joffe is adapted from Martin Booth's novel A Very Private Gentleman, published in 2005. The film's producers are This is that's Anne Carey, who most recently produced Adventureland and The Savages; Smokehouse's Grant Heslov, an Academy Award nominee as producer and co-writer of Good Night, and Good Luck, and producer/director of this fall's The Men Who Stare at Goats; Smokehouse's Mr. Clooney; Ann Wingate, who most recently produced Into the Storm, starring Emmy Award winner Brendan Gleeson; and Jill Green, executive producer of the long-running U.K. television series Foyle's War. Enzo Sisti, co-producer of the upcoming When in Rome, is executive producer of The American.

Alone among assassins, Jack (played by Mr. Clooney) is a master craftsman. When a job in Sweden ends more harshly than expected for this American abroad, he vows to his contact Larry (Bruce Altman of this fall's Peter and Vandy) that his next assignment will be his last. Jack reports to the Italian countryside, where he holes up in a small town and relishes being away from death for a spell. The assignment, as specified by a Belgian woman, Mathilde (Thekla Reuten of Focus' award-winning In Bruges), is in the offing as a weapon is constructed. Surprising himself, Jack seeks out the friendship of local priest Father Benedetto (Italian screen and stage veteran Paolo Bonacelli) and pursues romance with local woman Clara (Italian leading lady Violante Placido). But by stepping out of the shadows, Jack may be tempting fate.

George Clooney is on of the most celebrated actors in the world.  He launched his career in stage appearances such as in VICIOUS at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in 1987 and with his role on the television monster hit ER in 1994.  Clooney has gone on to star in such films as Batman and Robin, Three Kings, Oceans 11, 12 and 13, Syrianna and Michael Clayton.  He has also directed and produced numerous films including Confessions of A Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck.

Focus senior vice president, production Kahli Small and creative executive Michael Pruss are supervising the project for president of production John Lyons. The American is Mr. Corbijn's second feature film as director, following the award-winning 2007 drama Control, for which the director was honored with two British Independent Film Awards. The latter feature's cinematographer and editor, Martin Ruhe and Andrew Hulme, respectively, are rejoining Mr. Corbijn on The American; Mark Digby and Suttirat Larlarb, both of Slumdog Millionaire, are production designer and costume designer, respectively. Mr. Schamus said, "The combination of a visionary artist of the stature of Anton Corbijn with the great George Clooney is, for all of us at Focus, a movie marriage made in heaven."

Focus Features and Focus Features International (FFI) (www.filminfocus.com) together comprise a singular global company, dedicated to producing, acquiring, financing, selling, and distributing original and daring films from emerging and established filmmakers - films that challenge mainstream moviegoers to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world. The company's flexible and nuanced approach to distribution allows it to support a wide range of films, from those geared to a single local market to worldwide hits. The company operates as Focus Features domestically, and as Focus Features International overseas.

In addition to The American, current and upcoming Focus Features movies include Shane Acker's animated fantasy epic 9, starring Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov; writer/director Richard Curtis' rock and roll comedy Pirate Radio; the unique nonfiction feature Babies, directed by Thomas Balmès; Greenberg, the new film from writer/director Noah Baumbach, starring Ben Stiller; Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald's Roman epic adventure The Eagle of the Ninth, starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, and Mark Strong; Academy Award-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola's Somewhere; Taking Woodstock, the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee; and Academy Award-winning writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen's A Serious Man, which world-premiered earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. 

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