ENRON Film Coming; Adapted by George Clooney?

According to the Observer, ENRON, the stage play currently running in the West End, is set to be adapted to the big screen by George Clooney.

However, the film will not feature a British cast or director. The only member of the team which created the UK staging who will be involved with the film is playwright Lucy Pebble, who is writing the screenplay.

"How do you compete with George Clooney?" asked Rupert Goold, who won the Best Director award at the 2010 Olivier Awards for ENRON. According to the article, Clooney, the Oscar-winning actor, director, and producer, will co-produce the film and is also likely to direct it, but it's unclear as to whether or not he will appear on screen.

Goold's production sold out in Chichester, the Royal Court, the West End and on a nationwide tour- out-performing the Broadway production which failed after just 15 performances. Goold said it was frustrating not to be involved in the film and was upset that a British stage success was taken over by US producers.

Philip Hedley, former director of the Theatre Royal Stratford East, said: "It's a great shame that the original talent hasn't been able to follow through, to put on to film what they've originally created." Another prominent theatre director, who wished to remain anonymous, observed: "Everything works on celebrity and famous names."

The film rights were acquired by Laura Ziskin, and confirmed to the Observer, that she had joined forces with Clooney to produce the film.

Asked about Goold's exclusion, she said that the film will have a different "take", while still staying true to Prebble's vision: "Once you've done something... you've done it. Let that stand on its own." She added: "This is an American story."

The play recounts the spectacular decline of the energy company, once the seventh largest US corporation.

Commenting on why it failed to impress US audiences, Ziskin suggested that they may have felt uncomfortable about being satirized by a foreign company: "Maybe Americans didn't want that mirror held up to them at that moment."

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Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos