Set Image from George Clooney's The Ides of March

I never really looked at George Clooney as a truly great actor until very recently when he totally won me over in Up in the Air. But as a director, I've totally been on his side from the beginning. His first film, the Chuck Barris biopic/fantasy Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, deserves more credit than I think people have been willing to give it. He followed that up with Good Night and Good Luck, a masterful period piece and exploration of media on our society. So 2008's Leatherheads was a misfire, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  Right now he's working on his fourth directorial effort, The Ides of March, formerly titled Farragut North.

The film is based on Beau Williamson's stage play(also titled Farragut North) based on the time he spent as a political operative in Howard Dean's failed 2004 presidential campaign. Don't even get me started on that debacle and how shameful it is what happened to him, but I digress. Anyway, Clooney is starring as Democratic presidential candidate Mike Norris. Ryan Gosling is his chief campaign manager who gets sucked into the twisted gears of the political machine. E! has managed to snag this photo from the set, currently shooting at the University of Michigan. In it, Clooney's character is poised in front of an Obama-style "Hope" image, only he's offering something totally different.

The cast assembled is simply out of this world: Clooney, Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Max Minghella, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood.  The Ides of March is due to open on October 14th 2011. I can't wait.