According to Variety, Clooney has purchased the rights to Jonathan Mahler’s book, The Challenge for his Smoke House production company. The book focuses on the efforts of US Navy lawyer, Charles Swift and Georgetown law professor, Neal Katyal and their tough journey to ensure that Salim Hamdan, the bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden, would receive a fair trial.

There is no news on Clooney’s participation in the film but there is some questions regarding how the film would end because the current timeline has changed some things that the book didn’t address. The book ended with the 2006 Supreme Court Ruling, while recently Hamdan, was sentenced to 66 months for material support to terrorism.

I think this seems like an interesting plot and Clooney is a capable producer, actor and director so it will be interesting to see how this story comes across on screen. This story is interesting too because it will shed some light on how terrorists and terrorist aides are tried and dealt with in this country, which is always a touchy subject. Audiences will be intrigued by this film and I can say if you get the right kind of screen writer and cast it could be one of the Oscar buzz films. I would like to see Aaron Sorkin develop the screenplay for this movie. I think he can do the story justice and make the courtroom law drama work like he did in a Few Good Men.