George Clooney Is Heading To Hulu In A ‘Catch-22’

In November, we learned that George Clooney would be revisiting the “small screen” as the lead in a TV series adaptation of the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22. Now, we know that series will appear on Hulu, the streaming service announced on Sunday.

Not only will Clooney star as Colonel Cathcart in the upcoming Hulu series, but he will also direct and executive produce it. The series will consist of six episodes and follow the plot of the original, written story.

The book follows Captain John Yossarian, a fictional member of a US Air Force bomber crew in World War II. His commander, Cathcart (Clooney), continues to up the number of dangerous missions his crew has to undergo in an attempt to get promoted to general. If crew members like Yossarian continue to go on these dangerous missions, they can be technically deemed insane, therefore relieving them of army duty. But if they acknowledge this by asking to leave the army, then they’re considered sane again. That is where the term “catch-22” comes from.

Hulu’s Catch-22 series won’t be the first on-screen adaptation of the novel. In 1970, Mike Nichols directed a film version starring Alan Arkin

as Yossarian and Martin Balsam as Cathcart. Fun fact—it also featured Art Garfunkel as Captain Nately, another crew member.

Paramount TV and Anonymous Content will produce the Hulu series alongside Clooney. Luke Davies and David Michôd wrote the script. Davies previously wrote the novel Candy, which was turned into a movie starring Heath Ledger in 2006, while Michôd’s writing credits include War Machine, a movie now streaming on Netflix starring Brad Pitt.

Hulu’s chief content officer, Joel Stillerman, said in a statement that Catch-22 “still resonates in today’s political and social conversation,” adding that “these are exactly the types of stories we want to be programming.”

Clooney’s Catch-22 series will join another book-cum-series adaptation on Hulu, The Handmaid’s Tale, originally written by Margaret Atwood. The first show from a streaming service to win the ‘Drama Series’ category at the Emmy’s, The Handmaid’s Tale has gotten Hulu not just critical acclaim but also an uptrick in subscribers. In addition to bringing another popular novel adaptation to Hulu, the Catch-22 series will also mark Clooney’s first time as a regular fixture on a series since NBC‘s ER.