Michael Clayton gets second lease on life: WB plans 1000 theatre re-release

Tony Gilroy could do no wrong in his directorial debut, but crazy market conditions definitely didn’t help. While it’s too bad it didn’t have the same convictions for Brad Pitt’s Jesse James film, but we are happy to report that audiences will have a second chance and receiving a first great impression. Michael Clayton will see the light again on January 25 – with a grand total of approximately 1,000 locations in North America. It’s a bold move that is based on a slew of award wins and noms: it has garnered five BAFTA Award nominations, for Best Actor (Clooney), Best Supporting
Actor (Tom Wilkinson), Best Supporting Actress (Tilda Swinton), Best Screenplay
(Gilroy) and Best Editing (John Gilroy). It also received four Golden Globe
Award nominations, including Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor (Clooney), Best
Supporting Actor (Tom Wilkinson) and Best Supporting Actress (Tilda Swinton). In
addition, George Clooney won Best Actor Awards from several critics groups,
including the National Board of Review.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house
“fixer” at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former
criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen’s
dirtiest work at the behest of the firm’s co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney
Pollack). Though burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer,
his divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt have left
Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the
career of litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the
multi-million dollar settlement of a class action suit that Clayton’s
firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner
Bach’s brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson)
sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his
career and his life.