George Clooney is preparing to make his Broadway debut as an actor and playwright next spring in the stage adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 2005 film, directed and co-written by Clooney, tells the story of journalist Edward R. Murrow, played by David Strathairn in the movie and Clooney in the play, who pushed CBS executives to let him continue his critical reporting on US Senator Joseph McCarthy's efforts to root out anti-communism. Clooney co-wrote the play with Grant Heslov, with whom he also co-wrote the movie's script.

George Clooney debuts on Broadway as Edward R. Murrow

George Clooney with a scene from The Boys in the Boat.

Good Night, and Good Luck will make its Broadway debut in spring 2025 at the Shubert theater. The exact date has yet to be announced.

In a press release, Clooney said, “I am honored, after all these years, to be coming back to the stage and especially, to Broadway, the art form and the venue that every actor aspires to.”

In the movie, the actor played Murrow's See It Now co-producer Fred W. Friendly. The film was nominated for six Oscars, including best picture. Clooney and Heslov also worked together on 2011's The Ides of March, 2014's The Monuments Men and 2017's Suborbicon.

Tony winner David Cromer, who won for directing The Band's Visit, will helm the play.

Cromer said, “Edward R. Murrow operated from a kind of moral clarity that feels vanishingly rare in today's media landscape. There was an immediacy in those early live television broadcasts that today can only be effectively captured on stage, in front of a live audience.”

Clooney will appear on stage in the 2024-2025 season, which is also Robert Downey Jr.'s Broadway debut. Coincidentally, Downey also starred in Good Night, and Good Luck as CBS News writer, editor, and correspondent Joseph Wershba.

The title comes from Murrow's 1958 speech to the Radio-Television News Directors Association & Foundation.

Murrow vs McCarthy

The term McCarthyism, also known as the Second Red Scare, comes from Sen. McCarthy, who spearheaded the political repression and persecution of individuals who were identified as left wing. His campaign spread fear of communist and alleged Soviet influence in American during the late '40s through the '50s.

McCarthyism also gave birth to the Hollywood Blacklist which prohibited American actors, directors, musicians, screenwriters and entertainment professionals from working in Hollywood due to their alleged membership or even ties to the Communist Party.

The blacklist officially began in 1947 the day after 10 writers and directors, now called Hollywood Ten, were cited with contempt of Congress. They refused to testify in front of Congress' House Un-American Activities Committee.

Murrow is largely credited to have helped lead to McCarthy's Congressional censure in 1954 because he refused to cooperate with, as well as his abuse of the committee members tasked to investigate whether or not the senator should be censured.

Two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney was last seen in 2022's romantic comedy feature Ticket to Paradise with Julia Roberts. He and Heslov also produced the 2023 sport biopic The Boys in the Boat.

The actor will next be seen in the thriller Wolfs, which reunites him with Ocean's co-star and friend, Brad Pitt. He won his first Oscar as best supporting actor in the 2006 film Syriana and his second in 2013 for Argo for best picture, sharing the award with Ben Affleck and Heslov.