Whilst discussing LIONS FOR LAMBS on the Creative Screenwriting Magazine podcast Matthew Michael Carnahan gave a few little interesting details away about his and brother Joe’s stalled WHITE JAZZ adaptation.
Those of you who’ve been following the project will know that George Clooney was set to play rogue LAPD cop Dave Klein before dropping out for reasons that were never quite clear.
Following Clooney out the door was Chris Pine, who preferred to go where William Shatner has gone before by playing James Kirk in the new STAR TREK film.
Carnahan (that’s Matthew Michael) mentioned on the podcast that Joe had lined up Jessica Biel to play Clooney’s love interest, Hollywood starlet Glenda Bledsoe.
He describes Biel’s audition as “head and shoulders” above the competition and mentioned that several other actors are still interested in the part of Klein.
But here’s the real kicker: according to Carnahan, Clooney never even told director Joe personally that he was quitting the film, instead sending producing partner Grant Heslov to do the dirty work.
I generally have a lot of respect for Clooney and think he is a great actor and filmmaker, but this was a primo dick move on his part. He may not wanted to have told Carnahan face to face but how hard is it to pick up the phone?
Joe Carnahan hasn’t spoken to Clooney since and I expect he never will.
When a movie this high profile is written, cast and ready to go, then suddenly falls apart you can’t help but wonder if it’ll ever happen.
3 Comments
I don’t see the problem here. Actors routinely do things through representation or other agents all the time. This is totally business as usual. Were George and Joe lifelong friends? If they were, then I can see George having some kind of obligation to do thing in person with the director… otherwise I see nothing here that isn’t just regular daily routine for Hollywood.
His reasons for leaving were made crystal clear! Scheduling issues. Look up the Variety piece for the full story.
If you listen to the podcast it’s seems like Clooney, via Heslov, didn’t give the Carnahan’s a reason why he was dropping out.
Whatever his reasons, I still am not a fan of the way Clooney did this. I know Hollywood has its own set of warped rules but it lacked any personal courtesy.
Call me old fashioned, but if I were to quit my job I would not dispatch my mate to do it for me. Clooney could have told Carnahan face to face, picked up the phone, written a letter, but he didn’t… was he too scared to let Carnahan know himself?
Have I crossed the line here by daring to criticise George?