MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Speaking of his uncle, George Clooney says, “He had everything in the world going for him but he was a bad drunk, and ended up an alcoholic for a good portion of his life. During summers, I would live with him above a bar, which my mom always called the Bucket of Blood. The difference between this and the film was everybody sounded like they were from Kentucky instead of Manhasset. But the mentality was the same: people drinking at noon in a dark bar, the regulars who tell stories and are funny and supportive of one another. My uncle was that character. When you’re a kid, that’s exciting. I related to the guy, because I really loved my Uncle George. He was also the funniest person I ever met. At the end he got his act together.”
The official synopsis reads, “The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Tye Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her - and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Christopher Lloyd) - J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams - with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar. The Tender Bar is based on the best-selling memoir of the same.”
The ensemble cast, including Academy Award winner Ben Affleck and Tye Sheridan, featuring Christopher Lloyd and Lily Rabe will tell J.R. Moehringer’s tale which garnered him the Pulitzer Prize. The screenplay adaptation was written by Academy Award winner William Monahan (The Departed, The Gambler). This will be the fourth feature film George Clooney has directed that tells a true story, including The Monuments Men, Good Night, and Good Luck., and the tongue in cheek memoir of Chuck Barris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
George Clooney is also directing the new series Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, starring Justin Timberlake as Chuck Barris. He’ll continue to retell history with his Watergate mini-series, The Boys in the Boat which is based on ‘The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics,’ #1 ‘New York Times’ bestselling story about the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany. If you haven’t read it, treat yourself. He’ll continue his biographical streak with Saint John.
