TV: Catch-22

Oscar-nominated Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (Swept Away) has joined the cast of George Clooney's TV series Catch-22, "which is set to start shooting in Sardinia this week," Variety reported. Giannini will play Marcello, the owner of a Rome brothel who is "weathered and once handsome but still debonair," according to the producers.

The series, which marks Clooney's first regular TV role since NBC's ER, also stars Christopher Abbott as Capt. John Yossarian, Hugh Laurie as Major de Coverley and Kyle Chandler as Colonel Cathcart. Clooney has a small role as training commander Scheisskopf.

The six-part adaptation of Joseph Heller's anti-war classic novel is scheduled to air in 2019 on Hulu in the U.S. Variety noted that Giannini is "the only Italian talent announced so far in the Catch-22 cast, though about 300 Sardinian extras were recently recruited for scenes involving military activity on the Italian island, where Clooney--who is co-directing as well as starring and producing--has set up camp in a villa on its Emerald Coast."

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