News

Aaron Sorkin Accepts George Clooney's Challenge

Writer Aaron Sorkin of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The West Wing fame, will write The Challenge, which is being produced by George Clooney's Smoke House banner. The film is a courtroom drama about Navy lawyer Charles Swift, who worked with Georgetown University law professor Neal Katyal to bring about a fair trial for Salim Hamdan, who was a driver for Osama bin Laden and was held at Guantanamo Bay for five years. Clooney may direct and star as Swift.

Warner Bros. will distribute the film, which is based on a book by Jonathan Mahler. The film will not center on whether or not Hamdan is guilty; he was arrested in 2001 while transporting two missiles in his car and was eventually convicted for providing support to Al-Qaeda. Rather, the film will look at the efforts of the two legal eagles who attempt to sue the President over a possible violation of the Constitution due to the country's treatment of the driver.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
02.04.09