The Playlist is reporting that actor George Clooney has already entered into early discussions to star in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

We reported just yesterday that director Steven Soderbergh was in talks to helm the adaptation. This new story indicates that George Clooney is already talking with Steven Soderbergh about starring in the project.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. won't be coming to theaters for some time, though, with the tentative plan being to start production in late 2011. Steven Soderbergh is currently filming Contagion, which will be released on October 21, 2011 and, as Matt Damon recently revealed a few weeks ago, Steven Soderbergh will then begin production on the Untitled Liberace Project next summer, with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas starring. However, a 2012 start date for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. seems like a more reasonable bet, given the director's schedule.

It was also said that the current plan for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. involves starting from square one, throwing out previous drafts of the script by Max Borenstein, David Dobkin and others. Scott Z. Burns is writing the new script from scratch and it is said that the movie would not be modernized, and will still take place in the 1960s like the original TV show.