`The Midnight Sky` (December 23, Netflix) could return Clooney to Oscar contention for the first time since 2013 Best Picture-winner `Argo` (produced with his partner and frequent co-writer Grant Heslov and director Ben Affleck). That came one year after Clooney scored not only an acting nomination for `The Descendants` but also an Adapted Screenplay nomination for `The Ides of March` (with Heslov and Beau Willimon).
In a time when movie stars are scarce, Clooney is the rarest of breeds: He can get movies financed and greenlit (and TV series, like Hulu's `Catch-22`), even when they are not overtly commercial (`Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,` `Leatherheads,` `The Monuments Men,` and `Suburbicon`).
Netflix approached Clooney to take on his most ambitious directing assignment to date with a dystopian sci-fi outer-space thriller, `The Midnight Sky,` with a budget heading toward $100 million. It meant tackling serious VFX for the first time as well as starring. `It's a real drag directing yourself,` he said at his London Film Festival career tribute in October - one of many this awards season, including MoMa December 7. (`The Midnight Sky` premieres via AFI on December 8.)
