George Clooney's historic rowing epic on hold until COVID-19 restrictions lift

George Clooney is eager to commence work on a new film titled Boys In The Boat but has had to hit pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Deadline, Clooney said the movie about the U.S. rowing team's participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games is ready to move into production but has hit a snag.

"That was a bestselling book about these kids from Seattle winning the rowing competition and beating Hitler in Germany in 1936," the director detailed.

"It’s a truly great, big sort of epic film," he went on, before explaining that to create the spectator crowd scenes called for by the film, thousands of extras would need to gather in close proximity.

"We’re ready to go but the truth of the matter is we’re waiting until we can put 5,000 people all in stands because that can’t all be CGI (computer-generated imagery). You can’t do everything with CGI. It can’t just all be fake," he conceded.

The historical drama is not the only project the 59-year-old is waiting on that may be stalled by the pandemic. Clooney also noted that he is supposed to begin directing The Tender Bar, a film adaptation of J. R. Moehringer's memoir, early next year.

"The Tender Bar is a really wonderful script based on a terrific book. I’m supposed to do that in March. Who knows? Our plan is that," he mulled.

Sharing that he was trying to stay positive, he added: "We have a location scout and they’re looking at locations. She’s coming home now so who knows, but that’s our goal."

"The only thing you can do is keep moving forward and hoping," he reflected.