The satirical film noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic — and all-white — 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.

It fuses a script by the Coen brothers with a narrative about racial divisions inspired — in a negative way — by Donald Trump 's presidential campaign.

That set Clooney and writing-producing partner Grant Heslov to thinking about other points in United States history when forces of division were in the ascendant.

They fused that idea to an unproduced script by Joel and Ethan Coen about a similar white-picket-fence community where a crime goes horribly wrong in farcically bloody ways.

The Clooney Foundation he and wife run gave $1 million in the wake of Charlottesville to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups.