Clooney went on board with his Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov as executive producer. The project is being developed as a potential lead role, although insiders insist there is currently no acting agreement.
Clooney and Heslov joined Don Murphy and Susan Montford of Angry Films, which includes their credits Transformators and Real steel, to co-produce with Flint Dille, the grandson of the original Buck Rogers creator.
The character of Rogers first appears in a story with the title Armageddon 2419 and published in a 1928 issue of Pulp Pillar, Incredible stories. The story of a man trapped in a coal mine during a cave is written by Philip Francis Nowlan and falls into a suspended animation and the style of Rip Van Winkle is awakened almost 500 years into the future. There he is called in to help fight a war between various gangs in what was once America.
Rogers turned into a comic book – simply titled Buck Rogers – in 1929 by John F. Dille Co., on which the character’s popularity exploded across the country. Soon toys, radio plays, comics and a movie series with Buster Crabbe followed.
The last time Rogers was prominent on screen was in the late 1970s with NBC’s short-lived series. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in which Gil Gerard and Erin Gray played. The series has a robotic partner named Twiki and a talking computer named Dr. Theopolis introduced.
Clooney’s Midnight, a science-fiction thriller he directed, starred in and produced on Netflix in December.
He is picked up by CAA.