Hulu has released the first trailer for their upcoming adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel Catch-22. Produced and directed by George Clooney – who also co-stars, of course – the six-part limited series follows a bombardier (Christopher Abbott) hellbent on just coming out of each mission alive.

If you haven’t seen Mike Nichols’ epic 1970 movie adaptation, then you’re seriously missing out. The incredibly dark-humoured movie stars Alan Arkin as Capt. John Yossarian, a man desperately battling the insanity of war, as well as the war itself (World War II in this instance). It has an impressive cast, including Jon Voight, Bob Balaban, Anthony Perkins, Art Garfunkel and Orson Welles.

We’ve been looking forward to this since news first broke way back in November 2017. However, it looks like this won’t be as good as the movie. For starters, Hugh Laurie CAN NOT do an American accent, why he keeps getting parts as an American is bewildering.

Here’s the official synopsis anyway…

Christopher Abbott is Yossarian, a bombardier, whose frantic obsession every time he goes up on a mission is “to come down alive”. His odds of success at such a simple aim keep getting worse, because Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler) keeps raising the number of missions the men have to fly. More than the retreating Germans, the real enemy for Yossarian and his rag-tag bunch of friends is the bureaucracy of the military, inverting logic at every turn. The pinnacle of this is Catch-22, a military by-law which states that if you fly your missions, you’re crazy, and don’t have to fly them; all you have to do is ask. But if you as not to, then you’re sane, and so you have to fly them. George Clooney stars as the barking mad, parade-obsessed Scheisskopf. Hugh Laurie is the mellow, slightly checked-out Major de Coverley. Clooney directs the six-episode series, along with Grant Heslov and Ellen Kuras.

Catch-22 premieres May 17th on Hulu.

Scott Snowden is MyM’s US Editor. Follow him on Twitter.

Related story
• George Clooney to direct and star in Catch-22 mini-series
• Sci-fi espionage drama Counterpart, starring J.K. Simmons, cancelled
• John Wick TV series The Continental is going ahead at Starz
• Introducing Counterpart: Starz’ parallel world thriller – featurette & key art
• Watch The Ash Vs Evil Dead season 3 trailer NSFW