Every few years it seems like Clint Eastwood is on the verge of retiring from the acting game. While his directing output has remained steady, as he continues to put out a movie every couple of years or so (sometimes two in the same year), his recent appearances on screen have typically followed long gaps of time where his focus has been on behind-the-camera work. Case in point, we haven't seen a new performance from him since 2018's The Mule – but evidently he's not done quite yet, as the nonagenarian is now preparing to star in the upcoming film Cry Macho.
Clint Eastwood will not only star, but also direct and produce the movie , which isn't too surprising given that in the last 26 years he's only been in one film that he didn't helm himself. The feature is based on the novel of the same name by N. Richard Nash, and Nash has co-written the screenplay with Nick Schenk, who previously wrote both Gran Torino and The Mule.
Set in the late 1970s, Cry Macho follows the story of a washed up horse trainer in Texas who is offered $50,000 by his former boss to snatch his boss' son away from his mother in Mexico City and bring him back to the United States. An adaptation of the book has been in development for a long time now, with the plan a decade back being for the project to be developed as a starring vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger that would be directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer).
That version of the film never came together, which is what has now left the door open for Clint Eastwood to get a crack – but apparently this isn't his first encounter the actor-cum-filmmaker has had with the material. According to Variety, Eastwood considered making the film back in the late 1980s, but decided to make the Dirty Harry sequel The Dead Pool instead.
Should everything move smoothly, it would appear that the film will be Clint Eastwood's follow-up to 2019's Richard Jewell, though it's unclear at this stage when production may start. Shooting a movie during the pandemic is challenging enough when a director isn't in a high risk age range, and that could mean that an Eastwood production would require extra safeguards. That being said, the way the filmmakers prefers to work is probably an asset given that he typically doesn't like to do more than one or two takes of any given shot.
The list of actors who have remained active into their 90s is definitely a short one, and the list of directors active in their 90s is even shorter, so it's obviously impressive that Clint Eastwood is continuing to do both with the development of Cry Macho. Stay tuned for updates about the production as more information becomes available.
