Clooney's 'Ides of March' Coming Soon

Unless you've understandably been stricken with Apocalyptic anxiety while hiding out in your basement since John Boehner was named Speaker of the House, you probably recall that area native/Hollywood bigwig George Clooney was in town earlier this year shooting his fourth directorial effort, a political drama called Ides of March.

Based on writer Beau Willimon's stage play Farragut North, the film adaptation features Clooney, who co-wrote the screenplay with partner Grant Heslov, as a “Howard Dean-type governor” who's trying to win the Democratic nomination for president. Its impressive supporting cast includes Ryan Gosling and Marisa Tomei, both of whom star in the about-to-be-released Crazy, Stupid, Love, as well as Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright and Max Minghella.

In what's been an unusually quick post-production turnaround, Sony Pictures recently announced that Ides will get its world premiere Aug. 31 at the Venice Film Festival before making its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in early September. And while Ides is set to get a wide U.S. theatrical release Oct. 7, rumor is that the film will get some sort of advanced local premiere, likely with Clooney and some of the cast and crew in attendance. In more important news, the production is said to have used a copy of CityBeat as a prop in the film.

UPDATE: Here's the film's first trailer: