George Clooney to make a movie about the Wall St. bailout?

So it seems, according to Variety:

George Clooney and Grant Heslov's production shingle is onboard to produce a Wall Street bailout pic based on 2009 Washington Post article "The $700 Billion Man."

Project is being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Clooney. Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's 2929 Entertainment optioned the rights to Laura Blumenfeld's article about TARP mastermind Neel Kashkari for Clooney and Heslov's Smoke House banner.

Kashkari, a top official under then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, helped develop the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, which bailed out the big banks following the economic collapse in 2008. Kashkari subsequently left Washington and moved to an isolated cabin in Northern California.

Zach Helm ("Stranger Than Fiction") has been tapped to write the pic. Clooney will produce with Heslov and Double Feature Films partners Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher.

Shamberg and Sher last worked with Clooney on Steven Soderbergh's 1998 pic "Out of Sight."

Clooney is currently filming "The Ides of March." in which he co-stars alongside Ryan Gosling. Sony will distribute the political drama on Oct. 14. Clooney also stars in Alexander Payne's "The Descendants," which Fox Searchlight will release on Dec. 16.

Clooney is repped by CAA.

-Joey's Two Cents: Clooney is a talented director, so if he sees something in this project, I'm willing to go along with it, especially since I dug Helm's script for Stranger Than Fiction...thoughts?