George Clooney says he held back on making his political thriller The Ides Of March because the climate was too hopeful in the wake of Barack Obama's rise to power.
The actor/director told USA Today that the mood wasn't right back then “for a cynical political movie. Now the cynicism seems to have come back.”
The story, which is based on a play called Farragut North by former political staffer Beau Willimon, follows an idealistic young campaigner (Ryan Gosling) who gets a crash course in dirty politics while working for a presidential candidate (Clooney).
Clooney claims to have shown the film to representatives from both of the main US political parties. “Republicans hate the beginning of the movie, the Democrats hate the end. So we’re good,” he joked.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Max Minghella, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei also star.
The Ides Of March is due for release in UK cinemas on 28 October 2011.
