Last week it was announced that George Clooney would star in Joe Carnahan’s adaptation of the great James Ellroy novel, White Jazz. It’s a perfect fit of actor, director and material, and if the film wasn’t starting in 2008 I would be almost unbearably excited about it right now.
Yesterday I spoke with George Clooney at the junket for The Good German, and I had to ask him about the movie – would it be as dark and nasty as the book?
“It’s such a good screenplay,” he said. “I hadn’t read the book. Joe’s brother Matt wrote a screenplay that was just… It’s dirty, nasty, mean – there’s nothing nice about it. The one thing I’ve focused on over all these years is that if you’re going to get in it, it doesn’t mean you change it to wrap around you. You have to fit into that. It’s the way those things work. So yeah, I’ll piss some people off with that.”
Clooney is excited to be working with Madman Joe Carnahan, and wishes the guy would direct more often. “Joe is, I think, a great director, and should be doing it more. I worry about really good directors not directing enough. It’s like I want Quentin to direct more. I know he has to take time off to do his thing, but I want to see him. I feel the same way about Joe.”
The rest of the Clooney interview is coming in a week or so… and look for my exclusive interview with Joe Carnahan early in the new year.