Though insisting that the new movie about the U.S. rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics is 'ready to go,' the 'Michael Clayton' star admits that filming has to wait until coronavirus restrictions are lifted.

• Dec 7, 2020

AceShowbiz - George Clooney's plans to make a new movie about the U.S. rowing team that upset the world at the 1936 Berlin Olympics have been shelved because he can't put 5,000 extras in a stadium.

The "Michael Clayton" star is excited to get started on "The Boys in the Boat" and tells Deadline the screenplay is "ready to go," but he has to wait until COVID restrictions are lifted before he can get started.

"That was a bestselling book about these kids from Seattle winning the rowing competition and beating Hitler in Germany in 1936," he tells the outlet. "It's a truly great, big sort of epic film."

"We're ready to go but the truth of the matter is we're waiting until we can put 5,000 (people) in stands because that can't all be CGI (computer-generated imagery). You can't do everything with CGI. It can't just all be fake."

So Clooney has shifted gears and is now ready to work on directing "The Tender Bar" - the film adaptation of J. R. Moehringer's memoir.

"It is a really wonderful script based on a terrific book," George explains. "I'm supposed to do that in March... We have a location scout and they're looking at locations."

Meanwhile, Clooney and his business partner Grant Heslov are also adapting John Grisham's "Calico Joe" for Bob Dylan. "Bob Dylan got the rights from Grisham. He called us up and said, 'You guys want to adapt it?' I was like, 'Yeah,' " George laughs. "It's a great sort of baseball story... and we get to work with Bob Dylan of all people."