George Clooney to Direct Cuban Military Drama 'The Yankee Comandante'

By Boris  Kit 

George Clooney is attached to direct The Yankee Comandante, a Focus Features drama based on a New Yorker article about an American who assisted Fidel Castro and other Cuban rebels overthrow the reigning Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. Clooney and partner Grant Heslov will produce via their Smokehouse production company, a rep for Focus confirms.

The lengthy article, written by David Grann and published in the May 28 issue of The New Yorker, details the saga of William Alexander Morgan, who became the only foreigner other than Che Guevara to reach the title of Comandante in Cuba. His actions caught the eye of U.S. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The project likely will not be Clooney's next movie as a director. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker (The Ides of March, Good Night, and Good Luck) is working on an adaptation of the WWII Nazi art heist book The Monuments Men. And he's busy as an actor, next appearing opposite Sandra Bullock in Alfonso Cuaron's 3D space drama Gravity.  

Clooney is repped by CAA.