The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Image credit: Laura Macgruder

The Men Who Stare at Goats

STARRING George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
WRITTEN BY Peter Straughan
DIRECTED BY Grant Heslov

No false advertising here: ''There are actual goats in the film, and actual men look at them. And there's a hamster, too, as a bonus,'' says director Grant Heslov, George Clooney's longtime writing and producing partner (the two men collaborated on 2005's Oscar-nominated drama Good Night, and Good Luck). ''The humor is completely up our alley,'' says Heslov of the dark comedy, based on Jon Ronson's 2005 nonfiction best-seller about a U.S. military unit that investigates telepathy and other psychic phenomena for use in combat. Clooney plays an alleged U.S. operative who teams up with a reporter (Ewan McGregor) to track down the program's missing founder (Jeff Bridges), while also dealing with an outlaw psychic (Kevin Spacey). ''You're walking that fine line of stuff that is way out there, but having to play it deadly real,'' says Heslov. Sounds like a total zoo.