
Director Brad Bird and screenwriter Damon Lindelof had only one man in mind to play the film's lead character -- the disillusioned inventor Frank Walker. “From very early on we described Frank as George Clooney-esque,” recalls Lindelof, “and whenever we would talk about actors for Frank, the thinking was: who’s like Clooney? We crossed our fingers and did our best job of writing it, infusing Frank with a curmudgeonly humor and a heroic quality, all of which we think George embodies. And then we sent it off into the universe.”