When Marty McFly hopped into that DeLorean and went back in time to get hit on by his mom, the car became a cinematic icon. As the '80s series found new life on Blu-ray this year, we've seen DeLorean monster trucks, auctions and the car even found itself in the upcoming remake, 'Arthur.'

But it's not just fan-centric fare that's on the rise for the old car. In June, we learned that Brett Ratner was leading a pack of dueling John DeLorean biopics (he, obviously, is the man behind the car). At the time, David Permut's project was well under the Ratner shadow, but if Irish reports are right, a little face time from George Clooney should help to give the Rat a run for his money.

IrishCentral reports that Clooney is in talks to play ex-GM executive John DeLorean in David Permut's adaptation, which has now become the front-running biopic. (Snow White and dueling DeLoreans? Hollywood is all over the place.) Said to be DeLorean head Stephen Wynne's first choice for the role, Clooney offers the project star power, but he's also the guy who knows how to mix drama and weirdness (think 'The American' merged with 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?').

Why would a car developer offer weirdness? Read on.

After developing wheels like the Firebird for GM, DeLorean left the company in the seventies, moved to Northern Ireland and started the DeLorean Motor Company. But his life's story is not all hot rods and feature films. Only a year after opening his plant, he was forced to close it. Desperate to get his company back on track, a drug-smuggler-turned-FBI-informant zeroed in on him and convinced DeLorean to get involved with drug trafficking. The poor guy was caught, but that's not the end of the story. DeLorean then chose to defend himself in court and actually won his case, proving that the FBI set him up.

Do you want to see a DeLorean biopic, or are you just happy watching a souped up version of the car jump back and forth through time?