Ryan Gosling in negotiations to star in Clooney's film

According to deadline.com, Gosling, 29, would "play a young, fast-rising press secretary who works for a presidential candidate and gets swept up in the machinations of the political machine" in the film, which is based on Beau Willimon's political-campaign play loosely centred on Howard Dean's 2004 Democratic primary campaign. Farragut North is based on a political-campaign play by Beau Willimon, which was premiered by the Atlantic Theater Company in 2008. In the stage version, John Gallagher, Jr (American Idiot) played the press secretary, while Chris Noth (Sure Fire Hit) appeared as a campaign manager. It is already believed that Clooney is interested in both Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Paul Giamatti (Sideways) for other roles in his film version. Previously, Gosling achieved an Oscar nomination for Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck; 2006), and has already had parts in The Notebook (Nick Cassavetes; 2004), The Believer (Henry Bean; 2001) and the upcoming Blue Valentine. Gosling, who used to be a member of ABC's The Mickey Mouse Club, fronts the band Dead Man's Bones with his friend Zach Shields. Farragut North will be directed by Clooney and produced by his own film company, Smokehouse Productions.