George Clooney seems to be circling his next directorial project after his successful helming of CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND in 2002 and the historical drama GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK in 2005. Clooney and his production partner Grant Heslov have optioned an article published in the Washington Post in December 2009, entitled “The $700 Billion Man”. The article offered a telling portrait of Neel Kashkari, a Treasury Department official who was appointed as the federal bailout chief by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, only to retreat from Washington DC to the isolation of a small northern California town seven months later. The story, filled with corporate intrigue surrounding the Wall Street collapse and the government efforts to bail out the country’s biggest financial firms, will be scripted by Zach Helm, best known for his work on the film STRANGER THAN FICTION. Exposing the abuse of power is a subject close to Clooney’s heart, who is as well known as an outspoken activist as he is a Hollywood power broker.