Academy Award winners George Clooney ("Ocean's Eleven" series, "Michael Clayton") and Rene Zellweger ("Bridget Jones's Diary", "Cold Mountain") match wits in a quick-witted romantic comedy inspired by the stranger-than-fiction beginnings of America's pro-football league in 1925.

Long before the days of jumbotrons, Astroturf, and cheerleaders, multimillion-dollar paychecks and staggering endorsements, some men played football only for the love of the game. They were rough and crass. They were foul-mouthed and hardheaded. They were Leatherheads.

Clooney is Dodge Connolly, a charming, brash football hero who knows that this burgeoning sport is currently attracting, at best, a smattering of loud, drunk fans who can't conceive of paying top dollar to attend an event. His games are free-for-alls that devolve into fisticuffs, and the situation is quickly deteriorating. But the captain is determined that it's possible to guide his team and league from bar brawls to packed stadiums.

After the players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces collapse, Dodge convinces agent CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce, "Pirates of the Caribbean" series; "The Brothers Grimm") to secure his rising college football star, Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinski, television's "The Office"; "License to Wed") who is filling stadiums with every game for his ragtag ranks. Dodge hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country's attention.

A golden-boy war hero who mythically (and single-handedly) forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WWI, Carter has dashing good looks and unparalleled speed on the field. This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) aims to prove that's the case.

A cub journalist sent by her editor to play in the big leagues, spitfire newswoman Lexie suspects there are holes in Carter's war story. But as she digs, rookie Carter and veteran Dodge start to become off-field rivals for her fickle affections.

As the new game of pro football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must fight both to keep his guys together and to get the girl of his dreams. Finding that love and football have a surprisingly similar playbook, he has one maneuver he will save just for the fourth quarter...

Clooney has double duty on "Leatherheads", serving as both one of the stars and the director of the comedy, working from a script by first-time screenwriters Duncan Brantley [a UNC-Chapel graduate and a native of Rutherfordton, NC] & Rick Reilly. The film is produced by his partner in Smokehouse Productions, Grant Heslov ("Good Night, and Good Luck."; "Intolerable Cruelty"), and Casey Silver ("Ladder 49", "Hidalgo").

For More Information

LEATHERHEADS: The Official Website

Aaron Syrett, Director
North Carolina Film Office
919.733.9900