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Clooney to Direct Film About U.S.-Born Rebel in Cuba

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - NOVEMBER 15: Actor George Clooney arrives at the Premiere Of Fox Searchlight’s “The Descendants” at AMPAS Samuel Goldwyn Theater on November 15, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) Photo: Michael Loccisano/2010 Getty Images

Focus Features has already gotten down to negotiating a rights deal for David Grann’s May 28 New Yorker piece, The Yankee Comandante, about U.S. native William Alexander Morgan who became one of the rare, prominent foreign leaders of the Cuban Revolution. George Clooney is attached to direct. There’s an opportunity here for a revival of Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover, as Morgan’s involvement in Cuba attracted the attention of the F.B.I. boss. Spoiler alert: A defiant Morgan gets blown to smithereens by a firing squad.

Clooney to Direct Film About U.S. Rebel in Cuba