Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesGeorge Clooney wants to be an Air head.
The Oscar winner is in talks to star in Up in the Air, the new feature from Juno director Jason Reitman about a corporate downsizer obsessed with racking up air miles.
The 47-year-old star would play a shallow management consultant who goes around firing people to cut costs for big business. But his dream is to collect 1 million frequent-flier miles and switch jobs to work for the mysterious MythTech.
Reitman began working on the script about five years ago, while making his debut feature, Thank You for Smoking. Among his coproducers on Air will be dad Ivan Reitman. DreamWorks will distribute.
Clooney's fresh off the Venice premiere yesterday of his latest film, the Coen brothers' CIA farce Burn After Reading. Just last week he signed on to star in in The Challenge, a legal thriller about the trial of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's onetime bodyguard and driver. Clooney will also provide the voice of the title character in The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's cartoon take on the Roald Dahl novel.
In other Hollywood movie news:
- Aaron Sorkin is trolling for friends on Facebook. The West Wing mastermind has set up a page touting his next movie, about the formation of the social network, and no doubt looking for somebody to play Wordscraper with.
- Rogue Pictures has given the go-ahead to a sequel to this summer's breakout horror hit, The Strangers, which will likely see Liv Tyler reprising her role of a woman terrorized by a group of masked men who enter her vacation home. Shooting's slated for early next year.
- Ashley Greene, who's about to blow up with a starring role in the upcoming vampire horror romance Twilight, has signed on to headline the indie thriller Summer, about a woman out to find the father she's never known. The film costars Stephen McHattie, Barbara Niven and Peter Mooney as the unhinged family that Greene's character stumbles upon.