Sony picks up Clooney's 'March'

By Adnan Tezer Nov 2, 2010, 17:26 GMT

Sony has purchased U.S. distribution rights to George Clooney's "The Ides of March," an adaptation of the 2008 Broadway play "Farragut North."  

According to Variety, Sony is planning on a limited release next December before expanding wide in January of 2012.

Clooney will direct and star in the film along with Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.

Exclusive Media Group's Guy East and Nigel Sinclair and Cross Creek Pictures' Brian Oliver will produce the film along with George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House Pictures and Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions.

Clooney and Heslov adapted the screenplay with playwright Beau Willimon.

Shooting will begin in February in Michigan and Ohio.

Based loosely on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean, the play focuses on dirty campaign tricks in Des Moines, Iowa, just weeks before the state's Democratic caucuses.

The film follows a young press spokesman who gets involved in backroom politics and is manipulated by veteran political operatives.

Clooney plays a presidential candidate running for the Democratic Party ticket; Gosling will play the press spokesman; Giamatti plays a rival campaign manager; Tomei plays a reporter for The New York Times and Wood plays an intern for the campaign.