George Clooney is returning to TV, almost two decades since leaving his breakthrough role in medical drama ER.
The Oscar winner, 56, is starring in a new TV adaptation of Joseph Heller's 1961 satirical antiwar novel Catch-22, playing the book's petty antagonist Colonel Cathcart.
The announcement came as US streaming service Hulu made its rounds at the Television Critics Association press tour in California over the weekend.
As well as starring and serving as an executive producer, Clooney will direct the series.
Catch-22 is set during World War II and revolves around Captain John Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier desperate to fulfil his duties so he can get back home.
The title refers to the bureaucratic rule that stipulates that airmen rational enough to want to stop flying could not possibly be mentally unfit and therefore should be returned to duty. Cathcart is a foe to Yossarian.
Heller's novel was previously adapted into a cult 1970 film starring Alan Arkin and Martin Balsam.
Clooney's small-screen return is overdue. He rose to fame playing Dr Doug Ross on ER from 1994 to 1999, returning for a cameo in the series' finale in 2009, before moving onto hit films including O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Ocean's Eleven (2001).
The six-part series is set to go into production this year.
- with Los Angeles Times
