Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. Jennifer Lawrence and David O'Russell. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese. And now Matt Damon and George Clooney.
The longtime best friends (Meorge? Cloomon?) have long taken their friendship onscreen, to much-beloved results. There were the Ocean's movies, of course, Syriana and most recently 2014's The Monuments Men. And this fall they're getting the band back together with a bit of a different twist: Clooney is directing and Damon is starring.
The movie is Suburbicon, and it follows Damon, a seemingly nerdy, well-meaning man in a cookie-cutter suburb who suddenly gets himself involved the mob and turns, well, terrifying. It's a dark comedy to the extreme, killing off Julianne Moore's in a botched break-in almost immediately (don't worry, she resurfaces to play the dead woman's twin sister) and letting Damon get very familiar with all kinds of weapons. But there are also laughs. Confused yet?
That's kind of the point. The flick is a riff off of an old Coen Brothers script (the filmmakers responsible for Clooney's roles in Burn After Reading and Hail, Caesar!) that also brings more serious racial issues to light. (The members of the nondescript town also turn against a new family to the neighborhood—but no more spoilers!).
The most important thing to know about Suburbicon, at least right now, is that as director George got to boss Matt around however he saw fit. According to Damon, he was ever the consummate professional.
"It's great being directed by George," he told E! News. "He really, really knows his stuff. He's been nominated for every award there is and for good reason. He's really on his game and that makes it fun—you show up and he's done all the hard work and you just get to play around."
Anyone familiar with the two actors' friendship is also well-versed in Clooney's infamous pranks—some of the best on-set stories come from the many gags he has played on his best friends. But this time around, Damon insisted that Clooney's newfound fatherhood has done away with the time-honored tradition.
"I don't think he did anything to me this time," he says of the Suburbicon filming process. "Which makes me nervous because it means that something might happen. But I think because he has such huge changes in his own life he has less time now. When he was single he had nothing to do except plot ways to pull pranks on people."
For his part, Clooney insisted that he did take the liberty of pulling a few jabs. In one scene that anyone who makes it to the theater come October 27 will remember, Matt rides off down a deserted street after beating up one of his adversaries...on a teeny, tiny children's bike. According to George, that was no accident.
"You gotta boss Matt around," he laughed. "I think you saw the bicycle I made him ride. The prop guy brought out a normal-sized bike and I was like 'absolutely not.' Matt's gonna ride that little, little bike. It's fun, you can mess with Matt. He's long-suffering."
But in all seriousness, George had equally loving things to say about working with his BFF. He described the entire process as a total blast and made sure to point out that he was really great and a total pro, turning movie-making into a total ease.
Of course, Clooney being Clooney, he couldn't resist getting in one sarcastic barb about Damon and costar Julianne Moore.
"Okay, so they were drunk the whole time on set!" he exclaimed. "There it is."