Clooney stars and produces, series starts in the spring

Hulu is adapting the comic military novel Catch-22 to series, with George Clooney producing. The limited series will have six episodes and premieres in the spring.

Joseph Heller wrote the novel, published in 1961, about Yossarian, a U.S. Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. Yossarian’s real problem is not the enemy, but his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of bureaucratic rule Catch-22.

Besides executive producing, Clooney is in the cast as well, playing Scheisskopf. Kyle Handler, Hugh Laurie, Giancarlo Giannini, Daniel David Stewart and Rafi Gavron are also in the cast.

Catch-22 is executive produced by Clooney and Grant Heslov on behalf of Smokehouse Pictures, along with Richard Brown and Steve Golin on behalf of Anonymous Content. Luke Davies and David Michôd are co-writers and executive producers for the series.

Paramount Television and Anonymous Content are producing. Clooney, Heslov and Ellen Kuras each direct two episodes.