After starring in Hulu’s Chance, Hugh Laurie is all set to feature in the upcoming adaptation of Catch-22 alongside George Clooney who is also directing the project. This high-profile limited series has been written by Luke Davies and David Michôd while it is based on the seminal Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22 that hails from Anonymous Content and Paramount Television.
Laurie will essay the role of 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. On the other hand, Clooney will be seen as Colonel Cathcart and will direct the series alongside Heslov and Ellen Kuras.
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. However, 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.
– With information from decider.com
