According to deadline.com, Clooney will also direct the film and has co-written the script with Willimon and Grant Heslov. Willimon's play, which premiered in the fall of 2008 at the Atlantic Theater Company, looks at the inner workings of a political campaign.

Gosling will play a hot-shot press spokesman for a Democratic presidential candidate (to be played by Clooney). Giamatti is cast as a rival campaign manager, with Tomei as a New York Times reporter and Wood as a campaign intern.

Clooney, an Academy Award winner for acting in "Syriana," is known for his performances in films like "Up in the Air," "Michael Clayton," the "Ocean's Eleven" films, and the medical drama TV series "ER." He also co-wrote and directed "Good Night and Good Luck" and directed "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," appearing in both.

Gosling, an Oscar nominee for "Half Nelson," has also appeared in "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Notebook." Wood is known for her work on the series "True Blood" and in films like "The Wrestler" and "Across the Universe."

Giamatti (Emmy winner for "John Adams" and star of "Cinderella Man," "Sideways" and other films) and Tomei (Oscar winner for "My Cousin Vinny," nominated for "The Wrestler" and "In the Bedroom") are the theatre vets in the cast. Giamatti appeared in Trumbo, The Iceman Cometh, Aracadia, Racing Demons and The Three Sisters. Tomei's Broadway credits include Top Girls, Salome and Wait Until Dark. Production for "The Ides of March" begins in February 2011 in Michigan and Ohio.