George Clooney says he had been looking forward to working in his hometown when he directed his new political movie "The Ides of March" in Cincinnati.

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The 1979 graduate of Augusta High in Cincinnati rewrote the original play "Farragut North," changing the location from Iowa to the Queen City and the Ohio primary.

"Ohio has always been the key state," Clooney told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

"I put it in Cincinnati because I know it really well, and I thought it would be fun to shoot in my hometown."

The film is full of local Cincy landmarks and plenty of locals among the extras. "I never met so many cousins I didn't know I had," Clooney joked.

The Enquirer noted Clooney's father, Nick, made a run for Congress in 2004, and some of the movie's dialogue was taken from his dad's Cincinnati Post columns.