Clooney producing economic bailout drama

George Clooney has signed to produce a film about a US Treasury Department official assigned to become the federal economic bailout chief.

According to Variety, the project is based on a Washington Post article called 'The $700 Billion Man'.

The article tells the story of former US Treasury Department official Neel Kashkari, who left Washington for a small northern California town seven months after being appointed.

Kashkari helped to outline and implement the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP), which set aside $700 billion as economic bailout funds in 2008.

Stranger Than Fiction writer Zach Helm is adapting the article for the screen, and Grant Heslov is co-producing.

Clooney, who recently blamed his troubled past for keeping him from getting involved with politics, could direct the picture as well as produce.

It was reported late last month that the actor might be called to provide testimony at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's impending prostitution trial.