The Dude is a Jedi! Big Lebowski star Jeff Bridges joins Burn After Reading’s George Clooney for a Coen Bros. movie not made by the Coen Bros. The darkly comic Men Who Stare At Goats looks like it borrows heavily from the satirical tone of Burn After Reading. If politically minded black comedy is an emerging sub-genre, can a straight-up Dr. Strangelove remake be far behind?
In Goats, Ewan McGregor plays a journalist who enlists the help of Clooney, a so-called “psychic soldier” of the U.S. military who was reactivated following 9/11, and together they set out to expose gonzo New Age methods the military is employing in its War On Terror. Bridges will play the creator of the psychic-soldier program, and Kevin Spacey will play a former psychic soldier now running an Iraqi prison. As exaggerated as the plot sounds, Ronson’s book tells a bizarrely true story. Suggested examples of psychic prowess in our nation’s military include the ability to stare a goat to its death, walk through walls if you put your mind to it, and foresee the future better than Miss Cleo. Here's the trailer.