George Clooney Acquires The Challenge

The Observer recently broke the story, and now it’s been officially confirmed by the trades. George Clooney has bought the rights to Jonathan Mahler’s legal thriller The Challenge, which will be developed through Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smoke House banner.

The Challenge is about the long campaign waged by U.S. Navy lawyer Charles Swift and Georgetown law professor Neal Katyal to ensure a fair trial for Salim Hamdan, the bodyguard and driver of Osama bin Laden.

It’s still unclear what role Clooney will take with the new project, but it’s, of course, being looked at as a potential directing, writing and starring vehicle.

Clooney had been tracking Mahler’s story for some time, and Smoke House execs met with the writer months before the book’s recent publication. While there had been interest from other potential buyers, Clooney’s persistence is believed to have played a key role in persuading Mahler to sign with Smoke House.