George Clooney has picked up the rights to the play Farragut North by Beau Williamson and will be directing and starring in the film titled The Ides of March. According to SlashFilm, “Ryan Gosling will play Stephen Meyers, the young campaign mastermind to Governor Morris (George Clooney), who is campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Paul Giamatti is a rival candidate’s campaign leader. Marisa Tomei plays a New York Times reporter and Evan Rachel Wood an intern with whom Ryan Gosling’s character has a liaison.” With the main cast set and the movie to begin shooting soon, it was still a mystery on which studio would actually distribute this Oscar-aimed movie. Now we know that Sony Pictures has scooped up the film.

 The studio will release The Ides of March in a limited theatrical run in December 2011, with a wide release to follow in January 2012. So they will get the picture out there in time to qualify for an Oscar, but not so much that it really has to directly compete with the other slate of December 2011 releases. 

[Via SlashFilm]