George Clooney is taking a break from indie movies, political activism, and historical fiction to go commercial. He's doing a football movie.

The film, according to Variety, is Leatherheads. Clooney will write, direct and star in the movie. Renee Zellwegger is reportedly in talks to co-star with him. What sets this football movie from all the others flooding theaters is its time period. The movie is set in the 20s and sets its story against the backdrop of the beginning of professional football. The title is thus presumably taken from the inadequate headgear originally worn by frequently concussed football players.

The setting may be different, but it sounds like the plot will be more of the usual. Early incarnations of the project pegged it as the story of an elderly football player coaxing a college kid to drop out of school and join a shaky new pro league. Since players basically lived in near-poverty until the 80s, to me that sounds like kind of a bad decision.

Clooney is currently in the middle of rewriting the movie's script, but plans to start production on Leatherheads this spring.