BlackTree TV covers The 80th Annual Academy Awards

Best Actor

George Clooney

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, as son of Nick Clooney, a TV newscaster of many years, who hosted a talk show at Cincinnati and often invited George into the studios already at the age of 5. Avoiding competition with his father, he quit his job as broadcast journalist after a short time.

He came to acting when his cousin, Miguel Ferrer, got him a small part in a feature film. After that, he moved to L.A. in 1982 and tried a whole year to get a role while he slept in a friend's closet. His first movie, together with Charlie Sheen, stayed unreleased but got him the producers' attention for later contracts.

Daniel Day-Lewis

Johnny Depp

Tommy Lee Jones

Viggo Mortensen

Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. At the behest of the firm's co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), Clayton, a former prosecutor from a family of cops, takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's dirtiest work. Clayton cleans up clients' messes, handling anything from hit-and-runs and damaging stories in the press to shoplifting wives and crooked politicians. Though burned out and discontented in his job, Clayton is inextricably tied to the firm.

At the agrochemical company U/North, the career of in-house chief counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the settlement of the suit that Kenner, Bach & Ledeen is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. When the firm's top litigator, the brilliant Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has an apparent breakdown and tries to sabotage the entire case, Marty Bach sends Michael Clayton to tackle this unprecedented disaster and, in doing so, Clayton comes face to face with the reality of who he has become.

Cast

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Samuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment, a Mirage Enterprises/Section Eight Production, "Michael Clayton," starring Academy Award winner George Clooney ("Syriana"), Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson ("In the Bedroom"), Tilda Swinton ("The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe") and Sydney Pollack ("The Interpreter").

Production Team

The film was written and directed by Tony Gilroy (screenwriter, "The Bourne Identity," "The Bourne Supremacy"). Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, Steven Samuels and Kerry Orent served as producers, with Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, James Holt and Anthony Minghella serving as executive producers.

Joining the director behind the scenes were director of photography Robert Elswit, production designer Kevin Thompson, editor John Gilroy and costume designer Sarah Edwards. The music is by James Newton Howard.