George Clooney may be heading into the future. The actor-turned-filmmaker, currently in the awards sphere with Midnight Sky, is circling Legendary’s adaptation of classic pulp hero Buck Rogers in potential multiple capacities.
Legendary is currently developing a prestige limited series that is being written by Brian K. Vaughan with the goal of launching a film and an anime off-shoot if the initial series is a success.
Clooney has boarded the project as executive producer, along with his Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov. The project is being developed as a potential starring vehicle although insiders insist there is currently no acting deal in place.
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Clooney and Heslov have joined Angry Films’ Don Murphy and Susan Montford, whose credits include Transformers and Real Steel, to produce along with Flint Dille, the grandson of the original Buck Rogers creator.
The character of Rogers first appeared in a story titled Armageddon 2419 and published in a 1928 issue of pulp mainstay, Amazing Stories. Written by Philip Francis Nowlan, the story told of a man who is trapped in a coal mine during a cave-in, falls into suspended animation and Rip Van Winkle-style wakes up almost 500 years into the future. There, he is enlisted to help fight a war between several gangs in what was once America.
Rogers was turned into a comic strip — titled simply Buck Rogers — in 1929 by the John F. Dille Co., whereupon the character’s popularity exploded across the country. Soon, toys, radio plays, comic books and a movie serial starring Buster Crabbe followed.
The last time Rogers was prominently onscreen was in the late 1970s with NBC’s short-lived series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century that starred Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. The series introduced a robot sidekick named Twiki and a talking computer named Dr. Theopolis.
Clooney‘s Midnight Sky, a sci-fi thriller he directed, starred in and produced, debuted on Netflix in December.
He is repped by CAA.
