'Catch-22': Hugh Laurie to co-star in George Clooney's Hulu limited series
EXCLUSIVE: Hugh Laurie, coming off a two-season starring turn on Hulu’s Chance, is reuniting with the streaming platform for a co-starring role in Catch-22, Hulu’s high-profile limited series co-starring and directed by George Clooney. Written by Luke Davies and David Michôd based on the seminal Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22 hails from Anonymous Content and Paramount Television.
Set in Italy during World War II, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a bombardier for the U.S. Air Force, who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.
Laurie will play Major de Coverley, squadron executive officer on Pianosa air base. A noble, leonine presence, like some Civil War general, de Coverley dances to the beat of his own drum. Regarded with awe by the men. He spends his time pitching horseshoes, listening to jazz on his phonograph, mixing himself martinis, and hiring apartments for the officers in every new city the Americans take.
Clooney plays Colonel Cathcart and will direct the series alongside Heslov and Ellen Kuras. Clooney and Heslov executive produce via Smokehouse Pictures alongside Davies and Michôd as well as Anonymous Content’s Richard Brown and Steve Golin. Kuras is a producer.
Following his six-time Emmy-nominated stint as the lead of Fox’s popular medical drama House, Laurie co-starred in the limited series The Night Manager and recurred on Veep. Both roles earned him Emmy nominations. Laurie is repped by WME and Christian Hodell.
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