George Clooney in Men Who Stare At Goats movie

The Men Who Stare At Goats is a must-read 2005 book by UK journalist Jon Ronson about the US government's interest in very strange stuff, like Jedi powers, psychic spying, subliminal sound weapons, and the potential to kill something (like a goat, or an enemy soldier) just by looking at it. Fact or fiction, or most likely some of both, it's an absolute blast to read. (And Ronson's BBC Channel 4 documentary based on the book, Crazy Rulers of the World, is a lot of fun too! You can find it here on Google Video.) Yesterday, it was announced that Grant Heslov will direct a feature film based on The Men Who Stare At Goats. The star? George Clooney. From Variety:

Script was penned by Brit Peter Straughan ("How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"). The project has been around for some time, but international buyers only just received the script this week as the Cannes fest and market got started. Script topped the 2007 Brit List of best unproduced screenplays.

Link to Variety, Link to buy Men Who Stare At Goats

Previously on BB:
• The Men Who Stare At Goats Link
• Documentary: Crazy Rulers of the World Link

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by twobit , May 16, 2008 10:45 PM

YES! I stumbled across that BBC doc a while back. This may be great, except for the George Clooney part... makes me wonder where this is headed. A dreamy nutjob who woos women and kills goats with his mind? And what if he gets them mixed up?

#2 posted by Bandango , May 17, 2008 12:16 AM

Except for a few anecdotes I thought that documentary was terrible. It was very redundant and probably could have been half the length it was.

#3 posted by Joel Johnson

, May 17, 2008 12:27 AM

I am fine with this.

#4 posted by David Carroll , May 17, 2008 1:23 AM

Twobit (#1): George Clooney and Grant Heslov made Good Night, and Good Luck. Not exactly a romantic comedy. Just so long as they aren't forced into hiring Michael Bay, this should turn out OK.

#5 posted by adambowie , May 17, 2008 3:51 AM

Just a note to say that Crazy Rulers of the World, the documentary that forms part of the basis of this film, is actually a Channel 4 production and not from the BBC.

The film might be co-produced by BBC Films, but that's a coincidence.

#6 posted by alisong76 , May 17, 2008 4:48 AM

George Clooney is hot.

...documentary?

#7 posted by Nelson.C , May 17, 2008 5:04 AM

For no particulalrly good reason, I keep seeing in my mind's eye Clooney as the officer who kept trying to walk through walls by the power of his mind, continually bumping his nose on said walls. Well, it amuses me.

#8 posted by businesspad , May 17, 2008 5:19 AM

that's a coincidence

#9 posted by Narual , May 17, 2008 5:51 AM

@2 -- That's mostly because it was spread out over several days when it was broadcast and they were covering enough that you could come in on the third day and not be totally lost. But yeah, a bit annoying when you're watching the whole thing at one sitting.

#10 posted by David Pescovitz , May 17, 2008 8:08 AM

@ADAMBOWIE (#5), Thanks! Fixed!

#11 posted by nikos , May 17, 2008 9:23 AM

My bet is that the Clooney version will focus quite a bit on the PSYOPS leg of Ronson's jaunt through the bizarre/cruel methods employed by the US military, especially "music torture" used on Afghanis and Iraqis crammed in shipping containers forced to listen to Teletubbies, Maddona, Metallica, and all else, for hours and hours at a time, over and over again.
(And how "Be All You Can Be." became the marketing cry of the US Army recruitment apparatus.)

#12 posted by rosethornn , May 17, 2008 1:18 PM

The crack leader of a covert Special Ops team, Dirk Strongjaw (George Clooney) officially died years ago. But now, he and his team of specialist psychic and ESP swat agents must uncover a sinister plot to bomb the White House, before it's too late.

this summer, get ready for..

CODENAME: AEGAGRUS

#13 posted by Not a Doktor , May 17, 2008 1:43 PM

Dharma initiative?

#14 posted by Antinous , May 17, 2008 2:10 PM

A dreamy nutjob who woos women and kills goats with his mind?

There's only one thing wrong with that scenario.

And are we sure that these weren't just outtakes from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind?

#15 posted by Bandango , May 17, 2008 4:57 PM

@8- ya that makes sense, didnt think of that...

also, on first glance at the title of this post I thought George Clooney was going to star in a Goatse movie... which would have been HAWT

#16 posted by controlbroke , May 17, 2008 5:21 PM

wow.. thanks for the link to the documentary, i found the part about the weaponizing of the bookah(sp?) effect/flicker vertigo phenomenon interesting. especially because this doc is quite old and we now have the infamous puke ray/beam

http://www.rexresearch.com/rubtsov/rubtsov.htm

the patent for which can be found here btw on an appropriately goofy site, i have not tried to make my own yet but think i will :-)

#17 posted by timguestt , May 17, 2008 10:04 PM

The script for this is excellent -- witty, energetic and smart. BoingBoing readers might be interested in the writer Peter Straughan's next project: he's been hired by by David Fincher to adapt my book, Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds, for the screen. It's going to be interesting how he turns theatrical virtual mafia types, naked gnome protests and Korean Lineage kings into a narrative that I hope will be closer to eXistenZ than Lawnmower Man....

Variety bio of Peter Straughan

#18 posted by Takuan , May 17, 2008 10:24 PM

Dear Controlbroke:

Can the puke-ray be defeated by closing one eye and fluttering the other?

#19 posted by emg72 , May 17, 2008 11:12 PM

Ditto TIMGUESTT -- the script is fantastic. I have to admit, I haven't yet read the book, but reading the script made me bounce over to Amazon and buy it immediately. It's easily one of the top 5 or 6 scripts I've read over the last couple years, and I've read a *lot* of them.

Say what you will about Clooney, but the man finds interesting material; for a guy with matinee idol written all over him, he's willing to take some chances, which is rare these days.

#20 posted by ThinkPositive , May 18, 2008 6:48 AM

Is this a Hollywood movie? It doesn't sound like the kind of subject matter Hollywood would touch.

#21 posted by Takuan , May 18, 2008 8:33 AM

Hollywood can devour anything.

#22 posted by controlbroke , May 18, 2008 5:55 PM

@18 takuan

i dunno, it seems likely rapid blinking would reduce the effects for the led based systems at least. the patent makes claims of incapacitating nausea at exposures of less than 1 second. although all videos i have seen of the device being tested refute this. supposedly the time it takes to make you unwell is effected by the focus of the beam/pattern across the persons field of vision. if I can get something working. i guess i will let you know. i think i will start by trying out the patterns and timings on a standard projector.

#23 posted by noahveil , May 19, 2008 5:50 AM

How did any of you get to read the script? Is it online somewhere?

#24 posted by ill lich , May 19, 2008 11:32 AM

what about that other documentary. . . "The Women Who Stare At George Clooney"?

#25 posted by Esther Sassaman , May 20, 2008 3:05 PM

I am incredibly confused - I watched episode 1 of the docu the other day and when I clicked the link again today to watch episode 2 Google Video was offering an 8 minute excerpts video. What happened and how can I watch the entire documentary? Cheers.