Overture gets Clooney’s ‘Goats’

This strikes me as quite a coup for Overture Films, the young indie outfit that recently made their presence felt with a hard-won Oscar nod for “The Visitor.” In the biggest Cannes acquisition so far, Overture has nabbed the U.S. rights to Grant Heslov’s “Men Who Stare at Goats.”

The film, a political satire from Heslov and George Clooney’s production company Smokehouse, stars Clooney as a military forces agent who possesses the secret to paranormal war tactics. Ewan McGregor co-stars as a journalist who becomes inveigled into the discovery, while Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges round out the powerhouse cast. It’s certainly a lofty-sounding title for the little studio. Good for them.

Meanwhile, the Clooney updates are coming thick and fast. The actor, who it seems can put nary a foot wrong these days, has just signed on to headline Focus Features’ “A Very Private Gentleman,” an adaptation of Martin Booth’s well-regarded novel about an assassin whose plans for a simple final assignment in a rural Italian village are complicated by a series of personal engagements.

Which is all well and good, but what’s really interesting about the project is that it is being helmed by Anton Corbijn, the music-video master whose debut feature, “Control,” was one of 2007’s finest. This is a very different proposition for the filmmaker, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he applies his trademark atmospherics to thriller territory.