George Clooney wanted to star with Paul Newman in The Notebook

Basically, I was going to play him as a young man, and it was amusing.

Clooney didn't specify when he and Newman considered starring in The Notebook, but the Nicholas Sparks novel was published in 1996, and the rights to it were purchased the same year. 'Why?' I was like, 'Because everybody knows what you look like at 30 years old.

George Clooney nearly starred in The Notebook. We all met and explained, 'That is it.

But it all worked out just fine: The older Noah wound up being played by the legendary James Garner and Gosling, then a scrappy up-and-comer, was elevated to the A-list. "This is insane". We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, [but] it ended up being not the right thing for us to do", Clooney said during the discussion.

On Thursday, Deadline reported that Clooney will be working with another veteran artist on the upcoming adaptation of John Grisham's Calico Joe. The film starred Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love in the 1940s. He directed it, and also stars as a scientist working in the Arctic who is trying to stop a team of astronauts, including one played by Felicity Jones, from returning to Earth, which has gone through a disaster.

The cast also includes David Oyelowo, Sophie Rundle, Kyle Chandler and Ethan Peck in pivotal roles. "It's going to be great"'. "She was so gung-ho".

Ultimately, Clooney said he chose to revise the script so that Jones's character, Sully, had gotten pregnant while in space. "And it changed everything for us", he said. Clooney told EW that "10 years later they made it", so while the math is a bit off, it's safe to assume his involvement came very early on.

George gave the digital talk to promote his new film, The Midnight Sky, which is set to be released on Netflix in December.