"And then after all these years of not being able to get a meeting with even a junior exec,suddenly all the heads of the studios who had missed out in the bidding war said they wanted to meet this guy who made them cry. That's when things began to change."

When the film itself came out a couple of years later,there was a second wave. He'd jumped up and down with excitement upon readingNews of the World,immediately sensing its screen potential. A month later,Tom Hanks and his production partners sawLion,thought the same thing,and said,"Let's talk to this guy".

But in Hollywood,even for someone with runs on the board,nothing is real until it's real. So it is thatCatch-22 almost slipped through his fingers.

The series was developed by him and David Michôd,the writer-director ofAnimal Kingdom and another member of the"Aussie sharehouse in Koreatown"that Davies calls home (the fourth member is Mirrah Foulkes,partner of Michôd and the director ofJudy&Punch,which screens at the Sydney Film Festival next week).

Four weeks after they floated the idea to Scottish producer Richard Brown (True Detective) over coffee on their front porch,they had a deal to develop it as a series – with Davies writing and Michôd to direct all six episodes. But after many months of"agonising"development,Michôd dropped out when he realised he couldn't possibly do the series and his filmThe King.

"Which was super annoying for me for 30 seconds,"admits Davies."It was like,'Our show just fell apart'. He's my very dear friend,but it was like,'Really?'"

But"miraculously,somehow"the script had made its way to George Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov,and two weeks later"our show had very definitelynot fallen apart".

When George Clooney is onboard your project,Davies discovered,doors really do open. All along,Paramount had said no to shooting in Italy – where much of the story is set – because it was too expensive. But Clooney has a house at Lake Como,"and of course,three months later,we're shooting in Italy. I don't want to say it's causal,but…"

So,did George commute to work?"He did,yeah,"laughs Davies."Sometimes he would fly back to Lake Como on Friday night after shoots,and fly in again on Monday morning."

Nowthat'swhat you call a sweet spot.

Catch-22 is now screening on Stan,which is owned by Nine,owner of this masthead. The Sydney Film Festival runs June 5-16;detailssff.org.au. The Melbourne International Film Festival runs August 1-18;detailsmiff.com.au.

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