But before Clooney could suit up in his fatigues, the production had to grapple with a much bigger issue than casting. Because of the film's hot-button political subject matter — after all, the movie asserts that the U.S. left Iraqi rebels twisting in the wind after President Bush told them to rise up against Saddam Hussein — Warner Bros. began to worry that it might have a tinderbox on their hands.
After a Planet Hollywood was bombed in Cape Town in August 1998, the studio considered putting the production on hold...maybe even scrapping it. ''Some people at the studio thought we might be in danger making the film — danger from terrorists,'' says Clooney. Warner execs outlined the options: take the film to another studio, drastically rewrite the script, or wait six months for the smoke to blow over. Eventually, Clooney says outgoing chairman/co-CEO Terry Semel chose to stick by the film. ''He didn't make a corporate decision, but a creative decision, saying 'I'm not going to be told what kind of movies I can make.'''
If the folks at Warner Bros. are even remotely nervous that Clooney isn't a big enough movie star to open Three Kings, a visit to the Gloucester, Mass., set of The Perfect Storm would chill them right out. It's like a scene out of the Bay City Rollers Behind the Music episode. Hundreds of shrieking female fans are behind police barricades watching Clooney's every swish and dish as he pounds through a pickup basketball game outside of his trailer. It's seven months after Clooney's wrapped Three Kings. He's already got another movie in the can (the Coen brothers' Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?) and he's midway through Storm — Wolfgang Petersen's big-budget adaptation of Sebastian Junger's best-selling account of a doomed deep-sea-fishing voyage.
After seeing the gruff revelation that Clooney was in Out of Sight, it's easy to forget why he had so much trouble getting Three Kings. But Clooney's transition from ER hasn't always been pretty. There was The Peacemaker, One Fine Day, and let's not forget his lackluster donning of the Bat-codpiece. Clooney hasn't. ''Batman [& Robin] wasn't a very good movie and I'm not very good in it. But I got wealthy from it. They gave me 3 million bucks and I met with my accountant after it came out and I said, 'Where do I stand?' And he said, 'You never have to work again unless you're an idiot.'''
As a result, Clooney says he can finally be more choosy about his roles, insisting that he'd rather hustle after genre-defying movies like Three Kings than make another blockbuster just for the paycheck. ''I mean, how much money do you actually need?'' asks Clooney. ''My house is paid off and it's beautiful — I've made it Shangri-la. I drive up my driveway and I laugh. I'm in a position right now where I can live off the interest for the rest of my life and live ridiculously well. So then it comes down to, What is your legacy going to be? What are you going to stand for when you get hit by a bus? You want to be able to say you made a couple of good movies.''
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