Clooney set for Descendants

With Hawaii set to host Pirates of the Caribbean 4 sometime in the near future, we hear that director Alexander Payne is also scouting the island for his adaptation of The Descendants .

Returning to the directing chair after a post- Sideways break of six years (we’re not counting his recent work on TV’s Hung ), Payne has reportedly signed George Clooney for his next big project.

Based on the novel of the same name by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the film’s plot follows Matt (Clooney, we assume), an attorney who is debating whether or not to sell the valuable land that he has inherited.

Adding fuel to his seeming mid-life, well, questioning if not exactly crisis, Matt’s wife is in an irreversible coma. And he’s just discovered she was having an affair.

Along with his two daughters, Matt decides to travel to Kauai to confront his wife’s secret partner.

This is exactly the kind of project that we’d expect from both Payne and Clooney. Contemplative and character-driven, it sounds like a thoughtful drama that could hold a lot of wry humour.

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Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.