Deadline is reporting that George Clooney‘s Smokehouse Pictures will join with Focus Features to adapt The Yankee Comandante, an article written by David Grann that appeared in The New Yorker a few weeks ago. The political article follows U.S. Army veteran William Alexander Morgan in the late 1950s as “he aided Fidel Castro and his rebels in the Cuban revolution and went on to become the only American with a Comandante title among the forces.”
The Yankee Comandante will also follow Morgan as he was imprisoned on suspicion of espionage. The United States government, including J. Edgar Hoover, conducted investigations that hoped to uncover who Morgan was and why he sided with the Cuban revolutionaries.
Clooney is a great choice to adapt The Yankee Comandante as he has a lot of political experience and has proved himself both in front and behind the camera.
He showcased his talent with covert operations in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, period political tension with Good Night and Good Luck, and the affairs of political authorities in The Ides of March. The Yankee Comandante seems to have all of these elements in its story and like I said before, I think Clooney will do an excellent job with this one.
There’s no word yet on the cast or specific plot details but stay tuned for updates.