Steve Pratt hears George Clooney sing the praises of N-E writer Peter Straughan.

THE second day of the London Film Festival and the second press conference starring Mr George Clooney. Fantastic Mr Fox has given way to The Men Who Stare At Goats – but some of the questions, about Gorgeous George’s romantic status, remain the same.

He’s more interested in talking about the film, scripted from Jon Ronson’s non-fiction book by North-East writer Peter Straughan. It’s about a secret US military unit attempting to use psychic powers to beat the enemy by reading their thoughts and staring them to death.

Smokehouse, the production company run by Clooney and director Grant Heslov, made the movie. “The book had such a unique tone and I think Peter just nailed that in the script,” says Clooney.

“There are things made up in the screenplay, but the wackiest things are the real ones. When you read the book and they try to run through walls, they really did try to run through walls.”

The film sets the action during the Iraq War, although the story isn’t specifically about hostilities in that country. Any war could have formed the background. All the same, movies about the Iraq War have been conspicuously unsuccessful at the cinema box-office, surely a concern for Clooney & Co.

“There are a couple of issues,” he says. “With any topical subject if it’s Hollywood it’s going to be a couple of years later because you have to write, make and distribute a film. So you’re never going to be on the cutting edge of stories.

“I think we’ve been a little too close to the situation. It’s such a polarising moment, it’s hard to make films that deal directly with that subject.

“We didn’t think of this as an Iraq war film ,but a very different story completely. I’ve done an Iraq war film with Three Kings, which holds up and seems to be relevant. I never felt I was dealing with the idea of the war here.”

Clooney has directed himself but was happy on this occasion to let Heslov helm the movie. “He’s the boss.

Directors are a dictatorship. I have nothing but faith in him, he’s incredibly smart and I’m lucky to be his friend for 30 years.”

The cast had a good time making the movie, if tales of massive rubber band fights are to be believed. Just don’t suggest that it marks a return to the screen for Kevin Spacey (who plays a renegade psychic) after time spent running London’s Old Vic Theatre.

“I did three movies last year, two movies the year before and two movies the year before that,” he informs the assembled press crowd. And he’s just completed two more, he adds.

“I’ve been focusing on building the theatre company in the last six seasons.

Things are going very well so I had the opportunity to go out and do a couple of movies I enjoyed. My priority for the next six years will continue to be the Old Vic. I’ll do films when the schedule suits and they interest me.”

Both he and Clooney are the frequent subject of press speculation. Clooney takes it in his stride. “I’m the son of a newsman, I grew up around news,” he declares.

“Newspapers are losing subscribers and it’s a tricky thing selling them. The problem is there are so many and so little reporting. You file a story and it goes to 1,800 different outlets. They’ll reprint things that aren’t necessarily true. I understand the problem, why it happens, but it’s certainly an issue.”

Spacey is less tolerant. “I don’t get it,”

he says. “I don’t understand the notion of people who might call themselves journalists who just make up stuff. As a human being, I don’t understand why it’s of interest to somebody to write something that’s false in the hope that hundreds of outlets will use it.”

He’s not even happy with the way complaints are handled. “They don’t write the story is false, they write you deny that the story is true. It’s not the same thing as writing ‘what we said is absolutely wrong’.”

■ The Men Who Stare At Goats (15) opens in cinemas tomor