George Clooney keen to play lead in anti-war Iraq films

New York, Aug 5 : George Clooney is all set to star in a movie on the Iraq war, even though anti-war films about Iraq tend to bomb at the box-office.

What's more, Clooney will also be producing the pic, as well as starring in it.

Clooney and his production company, Smoke House, have paid seven figures for the rights to Jonathan Mahler's book "The Challenge."

The book is the story of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's Yemeni driver, who is charged in the first US war-crimes trial since World War II, now under way at Guantanamo Bay.

The story traces the account of Hamdan's journey from a mosque in Yemen and bin Laden's compound in Afghanistan to solitary confinement.

According to reports, Clooney is considering one of the lead roles, that of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, reports The New York Post.

Swift was part of the legal team that took Hamdan's case to the Supreme Court and won a pretrial decision that even terrorists are covered by the Geneva Convention. However, the victory cost Swift his job and marriage.

ANI